2018.01.3023:11:00UTC+00Eurozone Growth Hits 10-Year High in 2017

The eurozone marked its strongest annual growth rate for a decade, highlighting a solid recovery from years of financial crisis and boosting expectations that the European Central Bank will further scale back its crisis-era support for the economy.

According to Eurostat, the European Commission's statistic bureau, the eurozone surpassed the US and UK, expanding by 0.6 percent between the third and fourth quarter of 2017.

The annual growth rate for 2017 was 2.5 percent, which is the highest since 2007 and is also higher from 1.8 percent in 2016. The US grew by 2.3 percent and UK by 1.8 percent in 2017.

The ECB has been carrying out a huge stimulus programme in order to drive eurozone expansion. That programme has seen the bank reduce its main interest rate to zero, and spend billions of euros a month on buying financial assets. It is still pursuing the policy of purchasing financial assets known as quantitative easing, though it has cut back the amount it buys each month.

Growth appears set to remain strong in 2018, with a European Commission poll of economic sentiment indicating that confidence levels remain close to the 17-year high marked in December 2017.

In December, the ECB improved its growth estimates for the eurozone, expecting growth of 2.3 percent this year, up from a previous estimate of 1.8 percent, while 2019's forecast was increased to 1.9 percent from 1.7 percent.

The International Monetary Fund said the prospects for the global economy were improving, as it raised its global growth forecast for this year and next to 3.9 percent.