Economic growth across the 19-country eurozone slowed in the first three months of the year, official figures show.

In a preliminary estimate, Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said the single currency bloc grew by 0.4 per cent in the first quarter from the previous three-month period. That is the lowest since the third quarter of 2016, when growth was also 0.4 per cent.

Growth was down on the previous quarter's hefty 0.7 per cent rise, but in line with economists' expectations following a run of soft activity data attributed partly to the euro's strength.

On an annual basis, growth moderated to a still-healthy 2.5 per cent, from 2.8 per cent.

Separately, Eurostat said unemployment across the region held steady at a near 10-year low of 8.5 per cent in March.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.