BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The euro zone economy accelerated quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year, the EU's statistics office confirmed on Wednesday, thanks to a rebound in the biggest economy Germany and the end of a technical recession in Italy.
Eurostat said the economy of the 19 countries sharing the euro expanded by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the January-March period, the same as its initial estimate, after 0.2% growth in the last three months of 2018.
Year-on-year, the euro zone grew by 1.2% in the first quarter, also as previously estimated, the same rate as at the end of last year.
The quarterly acceleration was mainly thanks to Germany, which rebounded to 0.4% growth from zero growth in the previous three months.
Italy also helped as it rallied from a technical recession of two consecutive quarters, when its economy contracted each time by 0.1%. It expanded by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2019.