BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Economic growth in the euro zone halved in the second quarter as France ground to a halt, while unemployment held just above 10 percent in June, data showed on Friday.
The EU's statistics agency Eurostat said gross domestic product (GDP) in the 19-country single currency bloc rose 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter in the April-June period, slowing from the 0.6 percent growth in the first quarter of the year.
On a yearly basis, euro zone GDP was up 1.6 percent, slightly less than the upwardly revised 1.7 percent recorded in the first quarter.
The quarterly reading was in line with the forecasts of economists polled by Reuters, while the year-on-year figure compared with 1.5 percent growth expected by the market.
Eurostat does not publish GDP data on individual euro zone countries with its preliminary estimates, but the French statistics office did release figures earlier on Friday.
They showed growth of the euro zone's second largest came in at a worse-than-expected zero due to weak consumer spending, according to data released earlier on Friday.
In a separate release Eurostat said unemployment in the euro zone was stable in June at 10.1 percent after a slight fall in May, meaning that 16.3 million people were unemployed in June. Youth unemployment dipped to 20.8 percent from 20.9 percent in May.