Tech & Biz

Eurozone in Recession

by Jordan Yerman | November 14, 2008 at 07:17 am

108 views | 17 Recommendations | 1 comment

It's official: The Eurozone is in recession for the first time since the euro was created (1999). This includes all nations that use the euro as primary currency, as opposed to the geographical definition of Europe, although, in real-life terms, this indeed affects the entire continent.

According to Bank of America, these two quarters of negative growth are only the beginning, as the impact of unemployment on consumer behavior is not yet quantified.

Two quarters of negative growth define a technical recession.

The news was widely anticipated and follows data showing that Germany and Italy, two of the biggest eurozone economies, are already in recession.

BBC Berlin correspondent Steve Rosenberg said the figures were not a surprise.

It is the first recession the region has seen since the euro's creation in 1999.

urostat, the European Union's statistics office, released the figures on Friday. The fall follows a 0.2 per cent economic contraction in April-June.

France escaped the textbook defiinition of recession, though Germany and Italy made it official.

European car sales fell for the sixth month running, by 14.5% last month, a separate report showed today. Demand for cars has fallen dramatically as the global financial crisis deepens.

The Eurozone consists of Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Nederland, Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Finland, Cyprus, and Austria.

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SOLARLIFE

at 10:47 on November 14th, 2008

A good selection jordan. May I add the tiny comment the Euro will be the safe surviver of the US sub-prime scam. The distributed Fake shares had a european bailout. Means America got the money for worthless papers de-evaluating other currencies. Get me 2 NY laywers, if the Europeans would have robbed the US of $ 1 trillion. The bitter end of having "scammed" the friends will come at the G20 meeting, leaving the US alone to pay for it's debt. I got this impression today at the summit in Nice. Bush will see in his last days no mercy.