France avoids eurozone recession in third quarter

The eurozone slipped into its second recession since 2009 in the third quarter of this year, with output falling 0.1%, Eurostat data showed on Thursday. France and Germany managed to buck the trend, with both managing 0.2% growth in the same period.

The euro zone fell into a recession in July-September, the second since the global financial crisis in 2009, as French resilience could not make up for a slump across Europe and the three-year debt crisis slowed Germany to a crawl.

Economic output in the 17-country euro zone fell 0.1 percent in the third quarter, the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said on Thursday, following a 0.2-percent drop in the second quarter.

Those two quarters of contraction put the euro zone’s 9.4 trillion euro ($12 trillion) economy officially in recession, although Italy and Spain have been contracting for a year already and Greece is suffering an outright depression.

Read more: France avoids eurozone recession in third quarter - EUROZONE - FRANCE 24