The European economy slackened in the first quarter of this year but was able to surpass Britain, based on the official data. On Wednesday, the Eurostat gauged that the quarterly growth of 19 eurozone members had declined to 0.4 percent within three months until March. The reduction was lower compared to the 0.7 percent increase in the last quarter of 2017 and also the weakest growth rate since mid-2016. Nevertheless, the quarterly growth rate of the euro remains to be more positive compared with the 0.1 percent growth rate of UK within the same period, according to the report of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). On an annual basis, the GDP in the eurozone slowed down from 2.8 percent to 2.5 percent. But the latest data from the ONS indicate that the British economy grew by 1.2 percent on a yearly basis and the weakest figure was recorded in 2012. Moreover, the forecast for Germany’s GDP is not yet published while the statistics agency in France released a report that Q1 economic growth fell to 0.3 percent against 0.7 percent earlier. In Spain, the growth is predicted to remain at 0.7 percent.
