Eurozone GDP growth gathers speed

The eurozone's economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the final three months of 2013, up from 0.1 per cent growth in the previous quarter. It was the third quarter of growth since the end of an 18-month recession, the longest period of contraction to affect the single currency area. The eurozone figures include 17 of the EU's economies. Latvia became the currency zone's 18th member in January. Across the whole 28-nation EU, including the UK, growth for the October-to-December period was 0.4 per cent. The figures from Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, also showed that during 2013, GDP contracted by 0.4 per cent in the eurozone, but increased by 0.1 per cent in the EU as a whole, according to a news agency.