Euro zone retail sales fell and economic sentiment soured at the end of 2011, pointing to recession in the months ahead, but the first improvement in the business climate in 10 months offered hope that the expected downturn may be mild.
Europe’s worsening sovereign debt crisis and governments’ tough cost-cutting response appear to be driving the 17-nation currency bloc back into recession following the 2008-2009 global financial crisis, while the number of people out of work is rising.
“This data has recession written all over it,” said Martin van Vliet, a euro zone economist at ING. “It is all but guaranteed that we are going to see a contraction in the euro zone in the fourth quarter,” he said.
Economists are divided over how deep the recession — defined by two consecutive quarters of economic contraction — will be, after a free fall in industrial sentiment appeared to stabilize in December.
But it is clear the euro zone, which accounts for about 16 per cent of the world economy, will struggle to grow in 2012 and could contract by as much as 1 per cent, with its impact reverberating to the United States and Asia….
More? Check out http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1111462--weak-eurozone-retail-sales-point-to-mild-recession
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