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Growth in the eurozone has been sluggish in the past few months after stagnation in Italy helped slow the rate of expansion to just 0.2% in the latest quarter.
Figures from the EU's statistics agency, Eurostat, showed a marked – and unexpected – slowdown in the third quarter of 2018, and are the latest evidence of an easing of economic activity around the world since the beginning of the year.
Italy, which is at odds with Brussels over its plans for a more expansionary budget, and is at risk of suffering a third recession in a decade.
The government in Rome has said it's plans to stimulate the economy and it's still going strong.
France, the second largest economy in the eurozone, grew by 0.4% in the third quarter, twice as fast in the previous three months. Despite the bounce back, however, France's annual growth rate slipped from 1.7% to 1.5%.
Europe's biggest economy had a weak quarter, but the figure for the eurozone.
Bert Colijn, an ING economist, called the eurozone growth figures a "massive disappointment" and saw little immediate prospect of better news. "While one-off factors have influenced the number, it does not seem that growth will return anytime soon," he said.
"In Germany, disrupted car production will have dampened GDP growth in the third quarter, weighing on the eurozone average."
Eurozone growth has been boosted in the past by quantitative easing, the European Central Bank's money creation program, and by the pickup in world trade.
Jessica Hinds of Capital Economics said that it would not be a good idea to make money more expensive.
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