Economic recovery in the eurozone lost momentum in the third quarter of this year, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat estimated on Friday.

Economic growth in the 16 EU nations that share the euro slowed to 0.4 percent during the period from July to September, down from 1 percent in the previous three months, official figures showed, which was in line with market expectations.

The slowdown was mainly due to a much slower growth in Germany. Economic growth in the eurozone's biggest economy was estimated at 0.7 percent, significantly lower than the 2.3 percent registered in the second quarter.

But there were big disparities within the eurozone. While Finland led the continuing recovery with a quarterly growth of 1.3 percent, the debt-laden Greece was still in a deep recession and contracted by 1.1 percent.

In the third quarter, the EU economy also grew by 0.4 percent compared with the previous three months, slowing down from 1 percent in the second quarter.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, economic growth rate was 1.9 percent in the euro zone and 2.1 percent in the EU in the third quarter, after 1.9 percent and 2.0 percent respectively in the previous quarter, according to Eurostat.

People's Daily