LONDON — The 19-country eurozone is in its longest stretch of economic expansion since the global financial crisis in 2008 but growth remains paltry despite a series of tail winds and is susceptible to a reverse if the worst fears in financial markets come to fruition.
The region’s economy grew by a quarterly 0.3 percent in the final three months of the year for the second quarter running, the European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, said Friday.
Though the report contained few details on what drove the growth, information from individual countries suggests a rise in spending by consumers and governments offset the effects of waning global trade.
That’s certainly true for Germany, Europe’s largest economy, where energy cost savings appeared to have buoyed consumers and the influx of refugees prompted the government to increase spending.
The question for 2016 is whether those overarching domestic trends can offset the drag from outside the region. The global market turmoil of the past few weeks, largely stoked by worries over the Chinese economy, could erode Europeans’ sense of confidence and wealth.
Still, the fourth-quarter increase means the eurozone has expanded for 11 consecutive quarters, its longest sequence since 2008, when the financial crisis brought the global economy to its knees. The fourth quarter rise also bested the 0.2 percent growth recorded in the U.S., according to Eurostat.
As a result, the eurozone economy ended last year 1.5 percent bigger, its highest annual expansion since 2011, when it bounced back from the savage financial crisis-induced recession.
The region’s top three economies — Germany, France and Italy — saw unspectacular growth of 0.3 percent, 0.2 percent and 0.1 percent, respectively.
“The soft end to the year in several of the ‘core’ countries is likely to cement concerns about negative spillovers from abroad,” said Timo del Carpio, European economist at RBC Capital Markets.
