ANKARA
Both the eurozone and the 28-member EU bloc saw robust Gross Domestic Product growth in the first quarter, Eurostat reported Tuesday.
The Gross Domestic Product in eurozone and the wider EU rose 0.4 percent in the first three months of 2015 in the previous quarter.
Eurozone GDP rose 1.0 percent the same quarter in 2014, while EU28 GDP was up 1.5 percent last year, Eurostat said.
A 0.5 percent rise by household spending in both regions helped drive growth.
The European Central Bank has forecast annual growth for the eurozone in 2015 at 1.5 percent, 1.9 percent in 2016 and 2 percent in 2017.
Among member states for which data is available for the first quarter of 2015, the Czech Republic (+3.1 percent), Cyprus and Romania (both +1.6 percent) recorded the highest growth compared with the previous quarter, followed by Poland (+1.0 percent), Bulgaria and Spain (both +0.9 percent), Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia (all +0.8 percent).
Decreases were registered in Lithuania (-0.6 percent), Estonia (-0.3 percent), Greece (-0.2 percent) and Finland (-0.1 percent).
