Euro economy limps out of '05; optimism persists by Brian Love
PARIS — European economic growth shuddered to a near halt in late 2005 as healthy German exports failed to compensate for a chronically weak domestic market and France's export performance deteriorated. Details of what went wrong did little to dent a widely held belief that growth is picking up, however, and more up-to-date surveys of confidence in France and Italy in January and February lent some credence to that case. Germany's statistics office data on Wednesday explained why there was no overall growth in the last three months of 2005 in Europe's biggest economy — private consumption dropped and net exports lost their lustre. France, second biggest economy in the euro zone and third in Europe after Britain, fared little better, with GDP growth that slowed to 0.2% in the same period. But unlike in Germany, consumers were happy to spend and saved the day in France.
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