Eurozone growth slumps to weakest in four years

Official figures show that economic growth across the 19-country eurozone slowed in the third quarter of the year to its slowest level for over four years.

Statistics agency Eurostat said the eurozone economy expanded by only 0.2 per cent in the July-September period. That's half the previous quarter's rate and below market expectations for another reading of 0.4 per cent, reports AP.

The quarterly performance is the worst since the second quarter of 2014, when growth was being hobbled by wide-ranging debt problems across the single currency bloc.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, eurozone GDP rose by 1.7 per cent, down from the previous quarter's 2.2 per cent.

Eurostat did not provide details as to why growth slowed so much. They will emerge in an updated estimate in mid-November.