BRUSSELS, Feb 13 - Economic growth in the euro zone was anaemic in the final quarter of 2003 and for the whole year, data showed on Friday, but the European Commission said it expected a pick up in the first half of this year. Eurostat's first estimate for fourth quarter 2003 gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 0.3 percent quarter-on quarter and 0.6 percent year-on-year. This brought a final turnout for the whole of 2003 of 0.4 percent, it said in a statement. The Commission forecast that quaterly GDP growth would accelerate to between 0.3 percent to 0.7 percent in both the first and second quarter of this year.
"This prediction suggests that the euro area economy is building on the turnaround that took place in the third quarter of 2003," the Commission said in a statement. Its forecast for the whole of 2004 is growth of 1.8 percent, despite threats posed by the rising euro. The European Central Bank expects euro zone GDP to rise by 1.6 percent. The data came in the wake of weaker-than-expected growth in Germany and France, the euro zone's two largest economies. In the 15-nation EU, which includes non-euro members Britain, Sweden and Denmark, the economy rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter, unchanged from the previous quarter. Year-on-year EU growth in the final quarter of last year was 0.9 percent ater 0.6 percent in Q3.//