By Nina Adam in Frankfurt and Jason Douglas in London 

Robust domestic consumption kept Germany's economy on a steady yet modest growth path at the end of last year, despite weak exports and growing headwinds from the global economy, official data showed Friday.

Germany's gross domestic product grew at a quarterly rate of 0.3% in the fourth quarter--the same rate as in the previous quarter and in line with economists' forecasts, data from Germany's statistical office showed.

Germany's steady growth in the final quarter of 2015 may ease concern that the eurozone suffered a slowdown as the year drew to a close, after figures from France, the currency union's second-largest economy, showed its GDP grew by just 0.2% in the final three months of last year, compared with 0.3% in the third. Recent industrial production data from across the eurozone has also been weak.

Yet concerns about the prospects for global growth have intensified since the start of 2016, reflected in ongoing financial market turmoil that has hit stocks in Europe, Asia and the U.S. Bank stocks in particular have suffered this week, underlining investors' concerns that the negative interest rate policies pursued by some central banks--including the European Central Bank--may threaten lenders' profitability and weigh on growth.

The ECB is broadly expected to augment its efforts to fuel faster growth and stoke inflation in the 19-nation currency union when officials meet again next month.

Germany kicks off a day of GDP data from across the eurozone and the broader European Union on Friday.

Germany's statistics office said that net trade weighed on growth in the final three months of 2015, as goods exports were down from the third quarter--a sign that companies were feeling the pinch from weak demand from China, Russia and other large developing economies.

Domestic consumption, however, supported Europe's largest economy at the end of last year, Destatis said. Household spending rose again, albeit slightly, in light of a buoyant labor market and rising wages, while falling energy and fuel prices boosted disposable income. Public spending picked up markedly, Destatis said, with the government struggling to accommodate a record influx of migrants. Destatis also reported a notable pickup in construction investment in the fourth quarter of 2015 from the preceding period.

Data for the 19-nation eurozone as a whole will be published at 1000 GMT. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal last week forecast that the eurozone economy grew at a quarterly rate of 0.3% in the fourth quarter, unchanged from the third quarter.

Elsewhere in the EU, data Friday showed Hungary's economic expansion gained momentum in the fourth quarter of 2015 due to robust output in the manufacturing and services sectors, the central statistics office KSH said. Export-driven car manufacturing was Hungary's main growth driver in the previous quarters of last year: German premium car makers Audi, part of Volkswagen AG, and Daimler AG, Japanese car manufacturer Suzuki Motor Corp., and General Motors Co.'s vehicle manufacturer Adam Opel GmbH have manufacturing plants in the country.

Hungary's economy grew 1.0% from the previous quarter, exceeding analysts' forecasts of a 0.8% rise. That was faster than the third quarter's revised 0.7% growth rate. In 2015 as a whole, Hungarian GDP rose 2.9% on the year, a slower rate than the stellar 3.7% notched up in 2014.

Write to Nina Adam at nina.adam@wsj.com

Margit Feher in Budapest contributed to this article.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 12, 2016 04:20 ET (09:20 GMT)