Growth picks up across Europe at the end of 2013
BRUSSELS (AP) — Official figures show the economic recovery across the eurozone accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office, said Friday that the eurozone's gross domestic product grew by 0.3 percent in the October-December quarter compared with the previous three-month period. In the third quarter, growth was only 0.1 percent in the bloc, which counted 17 members before Latvia joined this year.
The figures also showed the economy of the wider 28-nation EU, which includes members like Britain that don't use the euro, grew by 0.4 percent compared with the previous quarter.
The eurozone came out of recession only at the beginning of last year as it started emerging from a five-year financial crisis, but the bloc continues to suffer from high unemployment of 12 percent.
