Germany is set to accelerate away from France and Italy in 2014 as the fragmented euro zone economy gradually recovers from its worst crisis, the European Commission said on Tuesday.
In a departure from the gloom of recent years, Brussels slightly increased its growth prediction for the bloc's nine-trillion-euro economy to 1.2% in 2014 from an earlier 1.1%.
It was powered chiefly by an expected 1.8% jump in the euro zone's biggest economy Germany.
The statistics also made clear the scale of the challenge facing Italy and its new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, in turning around the bloc's third-largest economy. The Commission predicts meager growth of 0.6% this year.
Number-two economy France is expected to grow 1% in 2014.
For the bloc as a whole in 2015, the commission raised its forecast slightly to 1.8%.
The improving growth outlook will relieve the European Central Bank, but policymakers there will also have to grapple with forecasts showing persistently low inflation and no significant drop in the region's record unemployment rate.
Meanwhile, the economic output figures outline how Europe still lags the United States. The U.S. economy is expected to grow by around 3% in 2014, buoyed by a massive money printing program that the ECB has been unable to emulate.
The figures draw a clear dividing line in the euro zone between southern countries such as Greece, struggling economically and arguing for more freedom to spend, and Germany, buoyed by strong exports and determined to enforce thrift.
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