Euro zone first-quarter slowdown confirmed, March output weaker than expected

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone economic growth slowed in the first three months of the year and industrial output in March was weaker than expected, data from the European Union's statistics office Eurostat showed on Tuesday.

Eurostat confirmed its earlier preliminary flash estimate that gross domestic product in the 19 countries that share the euro rose 0.4 percent quarter on quarter in the January-March period slowing from 0.7 percent in the previous quarters.

Year-on-year, euro zone GDP grew 2.5 percent, in line with the preliminary estimate and down from 2.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 and 2.7 percent in the third quarter.

Eurostat also said that industrial production rose 0.5 percent month-on-month in March, falling short of market expectations of a 0.7 percent rise. Year-on-year, production increased 3.0 percent in March against expectations of a rise of 3.7 percent.

February output numbers were revised down as well to -0.9 percent month-on-month from -0.8 and to 2.6 percent year-on-year from 2.9 percent.

(Reporting By Jan Strupczewski; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)