Euro zone contracted by massive 2.5% in Q1
LONDON -- Gross domestic product for the 16 countries using the euro contracted 2.5% in the first quarter from the previous quarter as a global recession sapped the industrial exports that Europe relies on for growth and jobs.
Germany, the euro zone's biggest economy, saw output plunge 3.8% as demand for its cars and factory machinery collapsed — its biggest economic contraction since at least 1970, when West Germany started to compile records.
The euro zone has now seen output decline for four consecutive quarters. The first-quarter slump is the biggest since figures began in 1995, but most analysts think the region is in its worst slump since the end of World War II.
Governments across the continent are hoping that big interest rate reductions by central banks, increased government spending and efforts to prop up troubled banks will mean that the first quarter marked the low point of the recession.
"This sharp decline very probably will not be repeated," German government spokesman Thomas Steg said of his country's figures at a regular news conference in Berlin. "We will now wait and see what happens, but there are clear indications that the first quarter will have been the most difficult."
Recent surveys have begun to hint that businesses and consumers are becoming a little bit less pessimistic — though they are nowhere near optimistic at this point. As a result, there are some tentative hopes that the European economy may start to grow again towards the end of this year.
"As soon as the boost from lower inflation and interest rates starts kicking in, households and firms will have more scope to make some of the decisions presumably postponed because of heightened uncertainty — if the boost to income is actually spent," said Daniele Antonucci, European economist at Capital Economics.
The first-quarter drop in the euro zone, compared to the quarter before, was far more than the consensus expectation just a few days ago, when most economists were predicting a quarterly decline of around 2%. But figures Wednesday already showed that industrial production — key to the European economy — was suffering worse than expected.
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