Germany's economy grew at the fastest rate in more than a year in the first quarter, the country's statistics office said Friday, as the engine room of the European recovery expands at a faster pace than both the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

Germany GDP was estimated to have expanded at a 0.6% clip in the first three months of the year, according to Destatis, up from a 0.% pace in the final quarter of last year and largely in-line with analysts' estimates. When compared to the same period last year, the economy -- Europe's largest -- grew by 1.7%.

"The quarter-on-quarter comparison shows that positive contributions came from both domestic and foreign demand, according to provisional calculations," Destatis said. "Due to the mild weather, fixed capital formation especially in construction, but also in machinery and equipment was markedly up compared with the fourth quarter of 2016."

"Households and general government increased their final consumption expenditure slightly at the beginning of the year," Destatis said. "In addition, the development of foreign trade was more dynamic and contributed to growth as exports increased more than imports, according to provisional results."

The euro posted a modest 0.5% gain against the U.S dollar to 1.0865 in the wake of the data, as well as Destatis' confirmation of April inflation, which it said accelerated at 2% pace, slightly higher than the European Central Bank's 'just below 2%' target of price stability.

Last week, data from Eurostat, Europe's statistics agency, estimated that the Eurozone economy grew at more than twice the pace of the United States in the first quarter as extraordinary stimulus from the ECB and a weakening currency combined to boost growth.

GDP growth for the 19 member states using the single currency was tabbed at 0.5% for the first three months of the year, according to the region's official statistics office, Eurostat. That puts the bloc's annualized growth rate of 1.8%, a pace that leaves both the U.S. (0.7%) and the U.K. (1.2%) trailing in its wake.

Eurostat's initial estimate, however, is subject to significant revisions given that the agency altered its reporting procedures last year in an effort to post data 30 days, as opposed to 45 days, from the end of the previous quarter.

"As flash estimates are available earlier than the traditional estimates, there is a trade-off between timeliness and accuracy," Eurostat said when the changes were first announced. "Based on the 16 test estimates, the expected typical revision for the GDP growth rates (with one decimal rounding) would be -0.1, 0.0 or +0.1 percentage points for both the euro area and the EU."

The next, more detailed preliminary estimate will be published on May 16.