Euro growth dragged down by France and Italy

Economic growth in the 12 nations using the euro currency slowed to 0.5% in the third quarter, the European Union announced today, dragged down by weak growth in France and Italy.

The European Commission kept its forecast for the last three months of 2006 little changed, but raised its outlook for the first quarter of 2007 “on the back mainly of upward revisions of trade data and continuously positive developments in survey data”.