Story from the GuardianThe eurozone has tumbled into a double-dip recession as the crisis in Portugal, Spain and Greece spreads to other countries in the currency bloc.
Eurozone GDP fell by 0.1% in the third quarter, after shrinking by 0.2% in the second quarter, plunging the region into a recession that economists fear could drag into next year.
The big surprise was the triple-A rated Netherlands, which saw its economy shrink by 1.1% in the third quarter, dragged lower by a 3.1% decline in investment and a 2.4% drop in exports. Economists had expected Dutch GDP to contract by just 0.2%. Austrian GDP also shrank by 0.1%.
The good news--if you can call it that--is that France and Germany have not seen their economies shrink, at least not yet. But the weakness of the European economy overall has been a drag on the growth of these "core countries".
Combine Europe's problems with the very real possibility of the
fiscal cliff actually happening, and...well, I won't spell it out for you, but I don't expect Fiscal Year 2013 to be a good one.
