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Europeâ€™s economy falls most in decade

13 February 2009 13:38 (UTC +04:00)

Bakuâ€“ APA-Economics. Europeâ€™s economy contracted the most in at least 13 years in the fourth quarter, compounding pressure on the European Central Bank to reduce interest rates to the lowest ever next month, Bloomberg reports.
Gross domestic product in the euro region declined 1.5 percent from the previous three months, the European Unionâ€™s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. That was more than the 1.3 percent economists expected and the most since euro-area GDP records began in 1995. From a year earlier, GDP fell 1.2 percent in the fourth quarter, the only full-year drop on record.
With the first recession in the euroâ€™s 10-year history deepening, companies from carmaker Renault SA to software-maker SAP AG are cutting jobs and scaling back production. Six ECB policy makers, including President Jean-Claude Trichet, have said the central bank may cut rates to a record low from the current 2 percent and consider other measures to stimulate growth.
he economies of both Germany and France, the two largest in the euro region, shrank by the most in more than two decades in the latest quarter. Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria also contracted in the final three months of last year, national statistics offices reported. The U.K. economy, the euro areaâ€™s biggest trading partner, shrank 1.5 percent in the quarter.