Euro area economic growth doubled in the first quarter weathering fears of a global slowdown and the jobless rate declined for the first time in three months in March to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years.

Nonetheless, Eurozone relapsed into deflation in April on negative contributions from oil prices.

Gross domestic product climbed 0.6 percent from the prior quarter, following a 0.3 percent rise in the fourth quarter, preliminary flash estimate from Eurostat showed Friday.

Growth was also faster than the expected pace of 0.4 percent. A similar faster expansion was last seen in the first quarter of 2015.

On a yearly basis, GDP growth remained at 1.6 percent, defying expectations for an easing to 1.5 percent.

Today's data provided only flash estimates for headline numbers. Eurostat is set to publish flash estimate on May 13.

Commerzbank analyst Christoph Weil said the strong plus is partly due to special factors like calendar effects and the mild winter. Amid the solid economic data, the ECB is unlikely to further loosen monetary policy for the time being.

It is unlikely that the Eurozone will be able to sustain this growth rate in the second quarter, IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer said.

The risk of recurrent terrorist attacks and the possibility of the UK voting to leave the EU in June's referendum are also uncertainties that could impact on Eurozone growth, Archer noted.

Among major euro area member countries, only France and Spain so far published quarterly national accounts.

Driven by a rebound in household spending, the French economy expanded at a faster pace of 0.5 percent in the first quarter. It was followed by a 0.3 percent expansion in the previous quarter.

At the same time, Spain's economic growth held steady at 0.8 percent in the first three months of this year, while economists expected it to slow slightly to 0.7 percent.

The EU28 GDP expanded 0.5 percent sequentially in the first quarter and by 1.7 percent from the same period of last year.

Another report showed that the unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted 10.2 percent in March, the lowest figure since August 2011, when it was the same. In July that year, the rate was 10.1 percent.

The February jobless rate was revised up to 10.4 percent from 10.3 percent. The number of unemployed decreased 226,000 to 16.44 million in March.

The youth jobless rate, which applies to those below 25, eased to 21.2 percent from 21.7 percent in the euro area.

Despite a fall in unemployment, euro area consumers clearly won't enjoy the same boost to their spending power from falling inflation in the coming quarters that they have over the last year or so, Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics said.

According to the flash estimate, the currency bloc slid into negative inflation again in April, with the harmonized consumer price index falling 0.2 percent annually, after staying flat in March.

Prices had declined 0.2 percent in February. Economists had forecast a 0.1 percent drop for April.

Headline inflation has been below the European Central Bank's target of 'below, but close to 2 percent' since early 2013. Policymakers are desperate to return inflation back to their mandate.

Excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, core inflation eased to 0.8 percent from 1 percent in March. The figure was also below the expected rate of 0.9 percent.

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