Gross domestic product declined 0.2 percent in the euro zone and by 0.3 percent in the 27-nation European Union in the second quarter, the bloc's statistics agency Eurostat said Wednesday.
Economists had expected Eurostat to leave its August estimate unchanged at -0.1 percent.
Still, the figure represents an improvement compared with the first quarter, when GDP fell by 2.5 percent in the euro zone and 2.4 percent in the EU.
Both Germany and France, the two leading euro zone economies, recorded a quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.3 percent.
In comparison with the same quarter of 2008, seasonally adjusted GDP declined 4.8 percent in the second quarter in the euro zone and 4.9 percent in the EU, after falling 4.9 percent and4.8 percent respectively in the first quarter./.