The preliminary figures for how economies have fared during the first quarter of 2013 are being declared. Initial readings on the French economy have shown that the contraction seen at the end of last year has continued into Q1 2013 with the economy shrinking by 0.2%. France is now officially in recession which is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, but French citizens – and indeed those in virtually all of the developed world – could be forgiven for thinking that they had been in recession since 2009 when the Global Financial Crisis was at its height. Whilst nations have emerged from the biggest recessionary wave seen since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the subsequent recoveries have been so anaemic as to go almost unnoticed by the average man on the street.
Both France and the UK were believed to have entered (erroneously named) double dip recessions in 2012, but subsequent revision of the data showed weak growth in the second quarter of suspected recession – but it was so weak that most people were happy to believe that they were experiencing the dreaded double dip.
Unemployment in France is at a record level of 10.6% and is predicted to worsen. The average level of unemployment across the whole of the 12.2% and the Eurozone economy as a whole is expected to contract by 0.4% this year.
As expected, Germany has avoided recession and has posted weak growth of 0.1% for Q1, however, the economy has contracted by 1.4% from where it was a year ago. The German statistical agency suggested that the harsh winter experience this year was partially responsible for the contraction. German business confidence fell back in both March and April, but the Xetra Dax index is near a 52 week high and has risen in value by 30.8% over the past 12 months.