Economists shocked at severe shrinkage of eurozone economy
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 currency 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 percent in the fourth quarter, theEU’s statistics office Euros tat said on Thursday, following a 0.1 percent drop in output in the third quarter.
The drop was the steepest since the first quarter of 2009 and more severe than the average forecast of a 0.4 percent drop in a Reuters poll of 61 economists.
For the year as a whole, gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.5 percent.
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.
More: Euro Zone 2012: Not a Single Quarter Showing Economic Growth
