In a report released by statistics agency Eurostat Wednesday, France's strong performance in the first quarter of this year was a surprising boost to the region's current economic status.
The country, which has been regularly called the "sick man of Europe," has seen its gross domestic product (GDP) rising by 0.6 percent. France outperformed the two biggest European economies and has been hailed as the fastest growth rate in two years, according to The Guardian. The country's GDP performance remained at zero percent in the previous quarters.
Italy's economy also got a boost by 0.3 percent, while Spain was the best performing economy with a growth rate of 0.9 percent. Greece's rate, meanwhile, languished in the latest quarter, tumbling by 0.2 percent following last quarter's 0.4 percent decline, while Germany slowed down to 0.3 percent from 0.7 percent last quarter.
Germany's standing was "good but not good enough," according to Carsten Brzeski, an ING DiBa economist, Business Insider reported.
In all of the European Union's 28 countries, however, growth was marked at 0.4 percent, reflecting the same rate as the previous quarter, revealed the Eurostat report. But the Eurozone's economy has performed better than the U.K. and the U.S. overall.
"Growth is clearly broadening across the Eurozone. That said, the jury is still out whether Eurozone growth has reached enough escape velocity to see a self-sustained recovery," said Peter Vanden Houte, another economist from ING, The Guardian reported.
"A resolution for the Greek problems will also be needed to lift the uncertainty that still prevents businesses to increase investment," he added.
