The eurozone economy will grow at its fastest pace in a decade this year, the European Commission forecast today, sharply increasing its projections from earlier this year, but the expansion will slow somewhat next year and in 2019.

In its regular forecasts for the all European Union economies, the Commission said the economy of the 19 countries sharing the euro would grow 2.2% this year, up from 1.8% in 2016. In May the Commission forecast 2017 growth at 1.7%.

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"The European economy has performed significantly better than expected this year, propelled by resilient private consumption, stronger growth around the world, and falling unemployment," the Commission said in a statement.

"Investment is also picking up amid favourable financing conditions and considerably brightened economic sentiment as uncertainty has faded," it said.

Growth in 2018 is to slow to 2.1% and to 1.9% in 2019, the Commission said.