Official figures have confirmed that economic growth in the euro zone slowed down in the third quarter of the year.
EU statistics agency Eurostat said gross domestic product in the euro area grew 0.4% from the second quarter after a 1% jump in the second quarter. This is in line with its earlier estimate.
Growth was driven by very strong figures in Germany, the zone's biggest economy, which expanded 0.7% in the third quarter. Crisis-hit Greece shrank by 1.1%, while third quarter figures for Ireland were not available.
Year-on-year, the euro zone economy expanded 1.9% in the third quarter, after 2% annual growth in the second quarter.
Eurostat said quarter-on-quarter household consumption contributed 0.1 percentage points to the overall growth figure, and government spending and net trade another 0.1 point each. After strong growth of investment and inventories in the second quarter, their contribution in the third quarter was zero.
Economists expect economic growth to slow down further in the last three months of the year as more government austerity measures cut into public spending and slower world growth undermines euro zone exports.
