Eurozone expands 0.3% in last quarter, 1.7% in 2010

The eurozone economy ex-panded 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2010 to cap a year in which the single currency area returned to growth with a gain of 1.7 per cent, European Union data showed yesterday. After contracting a record 4.1 per cent in 2009, the eurozone posted growth of 1.7 per cent over all last year despite the debt crisis that rocked the euro, according to the Eurostat data agency.

The fourth quarter figure was slightly less than the 0.4 per cent growth predicted by analysts. The economy in the wider, 27-nation European Union slowed to 0.2 per cent growth in the last three months of 2010 after 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.

For 2010, the EU’s economy also grew by 1.7 per cent.