Euro zone in recession as German, Italian economies shrink

Brussels: The euro zone fell into recession for the first time since the introduction of the common currency, the EU said on Friday.

The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, estimated that the economy of the 15 countries using the euro shrank 0.2 per cent in July-September.

The euro zone performance was weaker than that of the United States, where output fell 0.1 per cent on the quarter and grew by 0.8 per cent in annual terms.

The quarterly decline was prompted mainly by a technical recession in the euro zone's biggest economy, Germany, and the third-biggest, Italy.

The fourth-biggest economy, Spain, also contracted in the July-September period by 0.2 per cent.

Eurostat said that inflation in the euro zone was zero on a monthly basis in October, confirming its earlier estimate that price growth slowed to 3.2 per cent.