the eurozone economy rose a little above expectations in the second quarter despite sluggish performance in some major members offering some hope to policymakers trying to avoid dampening growth in the bloc while also bringing down high inflation gross domestic product rose 03 in the apriljune period compared with the previous quarter preliminary data from the european unions statistics agency eurostat showed monday the reading was just ahead of expectations of 02 according to economists polled by the wall street journal and marks an uptick from the flat growth booked the previous quarter the growth came despite italys economy booking an unexpected contraction in the quarter according to preliminary figures monday and despite stagnation in powerhouse germany conversely france booked betterthanexpected growth in the quarter while the spanish economy also grew ahead of the average ireland registered the blocs fastest expansion at 33 while members marking a decrease in gdp included austria and sweden as well as italy but overall growth was driven by oneoff factors making a contraction in the second half of the year likely capital economics chief europe economist andrew kenningham said the oneoff factorsincluding export growth in france and volatile data in irelandgive a misleading impression of the underlying strength of the economy kenningham said in a note the headline growth may nonetheless play a part in the european central banks interestrate decision in september the bank last week raised its rates by a quarterpoint as expected but left its options open for a pause ahead as it looks to avoid strangling growth and tipping the eurozone into a recession the ecb expects gdp to grow 09 this year marking a slowdown from the 35 growth it netted last year the economy should then rebound in following years according to the banks projections