(Bloomberg) -- Economic growth in the 19-nation euro area probably clocked in at 0.5 percent in the first quarter, underpinning European Central Bank President Mario Draghi's assessment that the recovery has become “solid and broad.” Data from France and Spain, the only major nations to report so far, sent mixed messages last week, with growth in the former slightly weaker than anticipated and the latter beating forecasts. Eurostat will publish figures for the single-currency bloc at 11 a.m. Frankfurt time, and Germany and Italy are scheduled to release numbers later this month.
--With assistance from Andre Tartar
To contact the reporters on this story: Zoe Schneeweiss in Zurich at zschneeweiss@bloomberg.net, Catherine Bosley in Zurich at cbosley1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Jana Randow
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