Eurozone growth hits second-quarter soft patch

After a gradual recovery, the 8.4-trillion-euro eurozone economy hit a soft patch in the second quarter after expanding 0.7 per cent in the first three months of the year and 3.2 per cent over 12 months. The data, which were in line with Eurostat and economists’ estimates, showed businesses reining in investment and construction activity dropping sharply even before fears of a credit crunch emerged over the summer. Read the article