German growth too weak to lift eurozone from recession

The eurozone economy continued to shrink as Germany's economy grew by a meagre 0.1% in the first three months of 2013, while France slid back into recession, according to data from the EU statistics office Eurostat published on 15 May 2013.

Shrinking by 0.2% in the first three months of 2013, the eurozone economy had now been in recession for the past one and a half years, the longest period since 1995, when Eurostat started collecting the data. The worst off were Greece - whose economy shrunk by 5.3% - and Portugal (-3.9%) compared to the 2012.

The Eurostat data also showed the German economy shrunk by 0.3% when compared to the same period in 2012. The German statistics office blamed the poor performance on the 'extreme winter weather' that lasted into April 2013.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background Information: US keen for Germany to lead EU out of crisis http://www.europeansources.info/record/us-keen-for-germany-to-lead-eu-out-of-crisis/

ESO: Background Information: IMF warns Europe of falling behind US on recovery http://www.europeansources.info/record/imf-warns-europe-of-falling-behind-us-on-recovery/

ESO: Background information: Euro area GDP down by 0.2% and EU27 down by 0.1% http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-euro-area-gdp-down-by-0-2-and-eu27-down-by-0-1/

Spiegel Online International, 16.05.13: Austerity Is Making European Economy Sicker http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/german-press-says-extended-eu-recession-shows-austerity-ineffective-a-900252.html

Deutsche Welle, 15.05.13: Germany's meager first-quarter growth disappoints http://dw.de/p/18XpX

FT / Les Echos / România libera (& 4 other news sources), 16.05.13: Eurozone mired in recession (via PressEurop) http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/press-review/3781781-eurozone-mired-recession

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