With most eyes on the Greek debt crisis and its potential implications for the Euro it is easy to forget that this is not the only source of concern in Europe currently.
Figures just released for the performance of the German economy for Q4 2009 have shown that it shrank by 1.7% year on year.
The GDP figure was unaltered from the Q3 value, surprising analysts who had predicted modest growth. Over the course of 2009, German exports declined by 18.4%, the worst performance since 1950.
The decline allowed China to take over the mantle of the world’s leading exporter from Germany. The current woes of the Euro may help to improve German export figures going forward.
Spain Is The Last Major Economy in Recession
Data released this week shows that Spain remains the only major economic nation to still be in recession. Figures for Q4 2009 reveal that the economy shrank by a further 0.1% or 3.1% year-on-year.
The Spanish economy is the fifth largest in Europe, but the nation has the worst unemployment figures in the Eurozone: almost one in five of the workforce was unemployed in December.
A major challenge facing the government is to tackle unemployment. The national debt had risen to 55.2% of GDP by the end of 2009 and is predicted to increase over the next three years.
The Spanish government has revealed an austerity budget designed to save €50bn which includes an embargo on hiring new civil servants. Analysts are cautiously optimistic that Spain will emerge from technical recession when Q1 data becomes available, but on its own, this will do little to solve the nation’s problems.