The euro-zone economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5% in January, data from the Centre for Economic Policy Research showed Wednesday.
The CEPR's EuroCOIN indicator signals that economic growth in the 13 countries that share the euro remains "robust," although the pace of the expansion is unlikely to increase. The EuroCOIN indicator fell to 0.585 in January from 0.600 in December, its sixth straight monthly decline.
"The slightly negative trend of the indicator in the last few months signals that the underlying pace of recovery, while remaining sustained, is not foreseen to increase in the near future," the CEPR said.
The euro-zone economy grew 2.7% in 2006, its strongest performance since 2000. Business surveys and other indicators released so far this year suggest the economy will continue to grow at a relatively rapid pace. Friday, the European Commission revised up its euro-zone growth forecast for this year to 2.4%, from an autumn estimate of 2.1%. Compiled by the CEPR - a network of mostly European economists - in association with the Bank of Italy, the EuroCOIN index is based on 1,000 data sets from across the euro zone. It is intended to be an early measure of economic activity in the area.