Germany’s recovery from recession faltered in the final quarter of 2009, according to preliminary figures released on Friday.
The German economy failed to grow at all in the last three months of the year, with GDP unchanged compared with the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, France reported a 0.6% rise in GDP for the same three-month period – better than analysts expected.
Figures also showed the eurozone economy grew 0.1% in the same quarter.
Economic growth in the eurozone has slowed to a crawl – and that’s bad news for the UK as much as it is for member states.
The 0.1% growth figure for the fourth quarter of 2009 was worse than expected and puts into perspective the UK’s similarly anaemic performance over the same period.
Germany has hit the buffers after relatively strong growth in the second and third quarters – its performance then may have been over-dependent on stimulus measures such as the car scrappage scheme, since withdrawn. Italy, meanwhile, has lurched back to declining output.
Double-dip recession is the fear. That cannot help UK exporters who sell more than half their goods and services in other EU economies.
This represents a slowdown in the economies of the 16-nation zone, which grew by 0.4% between July and September last year.
Official first estimates indicated that the Italian economy shrank by 0.2% after growing by 0.6% in the previous quarter.
They also showed that Spain and Greece remained in recession, with the Greek economy contracting by 0.8%.
