Household demand and investment were the two biggest contributors to economic growth in the eurozone in the first quarter, data showed yesterday, as the EU’s statistic office confirmed its earlier growth estimates.

Eurostat confirmed that gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the eurozone in the January-March period rose 0.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter for a 1.0 per cent year-on-year gain – in line with market expectations.

Household consumption, long the more sluggish component of eurozone growth, now contributed the most – 0.3 percentage points – to the overall quarterly result. Investment added a further 0.2 percentage point and growing inventories and government spending another 0.1 point each.

But the contribution from external trade was negative as imports grew twice as fast as exports on a quarterly basis, capping overall quarterly GDP growth at 0.4 per cent.

The eurozone’s biggest economy Germany grew 0.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter, second biggest France expanded 0.6 per cent, third biggest Italy 0.3 per cent and fourth biggest Spain surged 0.9 per cent.

The economies of Greece, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland contracted. Malta reported growth of four per cent.