Household demand, investment drives first-quarter euro zone GDP

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Household demand and investment were the two biggest contributors to economic growth in the euro zone in the first quarter, data showed on Tuesday, as the European Union's statistic office confirmed its earlier growth estimates.

Eurostat confirmed that gross domestic product in the 19 countries sharing the euro zone in the January-March period rose 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter for a 1.0 percent year-on-year gain - in line with market expectations.

Household consumption, long the more sluggish component of euro zone growth, now contributed the most - 0.3 percentage points to the overall quarterly result.

Investment added a further 0.2 percentage point and growing inventories and government spending another 0.1 point each.

But the contribution from external trade was negative as imports grew twice as fast as exports on a quarterly basis, capping overall quarterly GDP growth at 0.4 percent.

The euro zone's biggest economy Germany grew 0.3 percent quarter-on-quarter, second biggest France expanded 0.6 percent, third biggest Italy 0.3 percent and fourth biggest Spain surged 0.9 percent.

The economies of Greece, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland contracted.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)