European Union grows at fastest pace for 10 years

The European Union economy grew at its fastest pace in a decade last year, figures from the EU statistics office Eurostat have confirmed.

The 28-strong EU expanded by 2.5% in 2017, its strongest performance since 2007 when it grew by 2.7%.

In the final three months both the EU and the 19-nation eurozone grew by 0.6% compared with the previous quarter.

That was mirrored by growth in the EU's biggest economy, Germany which grew by 0.6% in the final quarter of 2017.

France also expanded by 0.6% and Spanish growth was a notch stronger at 0.7%.

Overall in 2017, the eurozone grew by 2.5%, Eurostat said, the fastest growth rate since a 3% rise in 2007.

These latest figures confirm the flash estimates published by Eurostat at the end of January.