BRUSSELS: The euro zone economy grew more strongly than expected in the third quarter as France beat market forecasts and Germany narrowly avoided a recession, but the bloc remains weak and could need further stimulus.

European Union statistics office Eurostat said the 18 countries sharing the euro expanded 0.2 percent in July-September compared to the previous three months, when they grew 0.1 percent.

Year-on-year, euro zone growth was 0.8 percent in the third quarter, the same as in April-June.

“The euro zone economy is still growing, albeit at snail’s pace,” said Nick Kounis, economist at ABN AMRO.

“A slow recovery rather than a third recession looks to be on the cards.” Eurostat confirmed its earlier estimate that euro zone inflation stood at just 0.4 percent in October.

Economists said growth was still feeble and would probably slow again toward the end of the year. Most still expected the European Central Bank to launch further stimulus measures, up to and including a quantitative easing program buying government bonds.

“The recovery remains fragile and subdued,” Barclays said in a research note. “In this context, we continue to believe that the ECB will be forced to provide further stimulus ... by the end of Q1 2015.”

Recent survey data suggest the euro zone will continue to struggle, growing by just 0.1 percent in the last three months of 2014 and picking up only slowly next year.

“This would be consistent with the deterioration in sentiment indicators from the summer, predominantly in response to rising geopolitical tensions amid continued subdued growth in global trade,” said Marco Valli, economist at UniCredit.

Europe’s biggest economy Germany grew 0.1 percent, in line with expectations and confounding fears of a second quarter of negative growth.

France, the euro zone’s No.2 economy, grew 0.3 percent, beating market expectations of a 0.2 percent gain.

“Activity has somewhat taken off but remains too weak to create the jobs our country needs,” French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said in a statement, reiterating his call for more action to boost growth and jobs in Europe.