the eurozone economy rose a little above expectations in the second quarter despite sluggish performance in some major members gross domestic product rose 03 in the bloc in the apriljune period compared with the previous quarter preliminary data from the european unions statistics agency eurostat showed friday the reading was just ahead of expectations of 02 according to economists polled by the wall street journal compared with the same quarter last year the economy expanded by 06 the growth came despite italys economy booking an unexpected contraction in the quarter according to preliminary figures monday and despite stagnation in powerhouse germany the european central bank expects the economy 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