Is the Eurozone economy stalling?
Only a few weeks ago the Eurozone appeared to be pulling away from the worldwide economic downturn and into a new era of strength. However today we hear that the German economy stalled in the fourth quarter of 2009 with zero growth against expectations of a growth in the economy of 0.2%. This comes against a backdrop of growth in the third quarter of 2009 which hit 0.7% and appeared to show the worst was over. So is the Eurozone economy stalling?
The German economy is by far the largest in Europe and a vital indicator as to the direction of the overall Eurozone economy. If this large and influential economy is stalling, after a period of relative calm, can the other Eurozone economies make up the shortfall?
The truth is that if Germany is struggling then the chances are that German trade with other Eurozone members will be under pressure which will affect the economic performance of other Eurozone countries. It will be interesting to see how the French economy fared over the final quarter of 2009 as this is becoming more and more influential and the German and French authorities have been working very closely together in the recent past.
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