Germany and France poor performance plunge Euro zone into recession

Friday, February 15th 2013 - 05:34 UTC

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Bad news for Chancellor Angela Merkel who faces a federal election next September

The Euro zone slipped deeper into recession in the last three months of 2012 after its largest economies, Germany and France, shrank markedly at the end of the year. It marked the bloc's first full year in which no quarter produced growth, extending back to 1995.

Economic output in the 17-country region fell by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, the EU statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday, following a 0.1% drop in output in the third quarter. The drop was the steepest since the first quarter of 2009. For the year as a whole, GDP fell by 0.5%.

Within the zone, only Estonia and Slovakia grew in the last quarter of the year, although there are no figures available yet for Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia.

The big economies set the tone. Germany contracted by 0.6% on the quarter, official data showed, marking its worst performance since the global financial crisis was raging in 2009. France's 0.3% fall was also slightly worse than expectations.

Worryingly for Berlin, it was export performance, the motor of its economy that did most of the damage although economists expect it to bounce back quickly.

“In the final quarter of 2012 exports of goods declined significantly more than imports of goods,” the German Statistics Office said in a statement.

Categories: Economy, Politics, International.

Tags: Angela Merkel, Eurostat, Eurozone, France, Germany.

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Anglotino
I hope Germany picks up, I plan on spending 2015 studying at the Universität Stuttgart.
Feb 15th, 2013 - 06:42 am 0
Boovis
This whole plan was the idea of Germany and France in the first place, if they'd just kept it to a simple coal/energy agreement as it was in the first place, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Anglotino: I think you'll be fine as a student there, despite the gloomy predictions the unemployment rate is still low compared to other nations and the country is a great place to live, I'm sure you'll have a great time :)
Feb 15th, 2013 - 06:49 am 0
Nostrolldamus the 10th
Triple dip... Europe rewriting economic Hall of Shame history.
Feb 15th, 2013 - 03:30 pm 0

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