Investing.com - Growth in the euro area economy slowed slightly in the first quarter, according to a revised estimate released on Tuesday, underlining the European Central Bank’s caution about scaling back stimulus.
Eurostat said the euro area economy grew by an annualized 2.5% in the three months to March, in line with the preliminary estimate. That was down from 2.7% annual growth in the fourth quarter.
The economy expanded by 0.4% in the first quarter.
A report earlier in the day showed that Germany’s economy suffered a slowdown in the first quarter as a result of weak trade.
The euro zone’s largest economy expanded by just 0.3% in the first three months of the year.
Speaking after the bank’s latest policy meeting in April, ECB President Mario Draghi acknowledged that the pace of the euro area recovery had moderated since the start of the year, but signaled no change in monetary policy.
Draghi said his overall assessment was one of “caution tempered by an unchanged confidence” that inflation is moving towards the ECB’s target of just below 2%.
Many analysts now believe that the ECB may wait until July - a month later than previously expected - to give markets updated forward guidance on its plans to begin winding up its stimulus program.
At the same time, another report showed that industrial production in the euro zone grew by an annualized 3.0% in March and by a smaller-than-forecast 0.5% from a month earlier.