ANKARA

The European Union's gross domestic product growth performance slowed down in 2018 compared to the previous year, the EU's statistical office said on Thursday. 

Eurostat said the EU28 posted 1.9 percent economic growth last year, as the euro area saw 1.8 percent GDP growth.

"The annual growth rate for 2017 was 2.4 percent for both the euro area and the EU28," the statistical office said. 

The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents the member states that use the single currency -- the euro -- while the EU28 defines all member countries of the bloc.

In the last quarter of last year, GDP in the 28-member bloc grew by 1.4 percent year-on-year.

Eurostat said that Latvia's economy showed the top performance with annual growth of 5.6 percent last October-December.

Among member states, the lowest figure was seen in Italy, as its economy failed to grow in 2018.