the eurozone economy grew at a slower pace in the fourth quarter than in the previous period due to rising coronavirus cases and the reimposition of restrictions across the continent taking their toll on the services sector across the 19 countries that use the euro as their currency gross domestic product grew 03 on quarter in the last three months of the year the european unions statistics agency eurostat said tuesday confirming the first estimate released on jan 31 this figure is in line with the forecast of economists polled by the wall street journal on year the economy grew 46 eurostat said also confirming the first estimate and in line with forecasts according to eurostats estimates of annual growth for 2021 gdp increased 52 in the eurozone compared with 2020 eurostat added that the number of employed citizens increased by 05 in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter after a 10 rise in the third quarter economists expect a challenging first quarter for the eurozone due to the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant and rising inflation driven by higher energy prices followed by a strong recovery starting in spring