Eurozone economy slides deeper into recession

The euro zone slid deeper than expected into recession in the last three months of 2012 following Germany and France, its two largest economies, shrinking at the end of an exceedingly bad year for the region.

The development marks the currency bloc's first full year that saw no growth in any quarter going back after 1995. For the year as a whole, gross domestic product (GDP) was down by 0.5 per cent

Economic output in the 17-country region was down by 0.6 per cent in the fourth quarter, according to EU statistics office Eurostat. This followed a 0.1 per cent output drop in the third quarter.

The zone saw only Estonia and Slovakia register growth in the last quarter of the year, even as there were no figures available yet for Ireland, Greece, Luxembourg, Malta and Slovenia.

The tone was set by the big economies.

Germany was down by 0.6 per cent on the quarter, according to official data, marking its worst performance following the global financial crisis.