BRUSSELS, May 8 - The euro zone economy grew at an unrevised quarterly rate of 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2002 and expanded by a slightly revised 1.2 percent from a year earlier, the European Union statistics office said on Thursday. Economists had expected the revision from the 1.3 percent annual rate of expansion that Eurostat had previously reported and the data confirmed the euro zone economy ended last year on a sluggish note.
Still, the report is unlikely to stir interest in the financial markets, which have seen far more recent soundings of the health of the euro zone economy and are focusing on the European Central Bank's policy meeting on Thursday. It was the third release of the fourth quarter GDP data and follows quarterly expansion of 0.3 percent and annual expansion of 1.0 percent in the third quarter. A breakdown of the fourth quarter data showed euro zone exports fell 0.2 percent compared with the previous three months after rising by 2.0 percent in the third quarter. The decline came even before this year's gains in the euro that have recently lifted the single currency to four-year highs against the dollar, yen and sterling. Such appreciation is provoking complaints from exporters, who are seeing an erosion in international competitiveness and the euro-denominated value of their foreign-currency earnings.
Eurostat said euro zone households' consumption grew by 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter compared with the previous one while investments were stable.//