Berlin  - Despite signs of slowing global economic growth and resurgent inflation, nations sharing the euro turned in a solid annual 2.2 per cent expansion rate during the first quarter, data released Tuesday showed.

However, the release of the European Union's statistics office's latest growth figures was accompanied by further evidence of a pickup in inflation with industrial producer prices in the 15-member eurozone bounding ahead by an annual 6.1 per cent in April.

The release of the latest data came ahead of Thursday's European Central Bank meeting with analysts expecting ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet to talk tough at his regular press conference about the threat posed by renewed inflationary pressures.

As a result, this is again likely to rule out any early moves by the hawkish ECB to follow the world's other leading central banks and trim the cost of money to help spur economic growth.

While Tuesday's data showed industrial producer prices creeping up month on month in April by 0.8 per cent, the 0.8 per cent quarter-on- quarter economic growth rate during the first three months of the year will help the ECB to argue that eurozone growth remains on a sound footing. (dpa)