Germany Helps Eurozone Skirt Recession

The eurozone barely avoided falling back into recession in the first three months of 2012, according to EU statistics bureau Eurostat.

The region's gross domestic product shrank 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2011 but was flat in January-March this year. A recession is defined as back-to-back quarters of economic contraction.

Stronger-than-expected 0.5% growth in Germany bolstered the eurozone's economy in the first three months of this year. Destatis, the country's statistics office, attributes the first-quarter gain, which reversed a 0.2% decline in the previous quarter, to increases in exports and domestic consumption.

France's economy, which grew a downwardly revised 0.1% in the October-December period, was flat in the latest quarter.

Southern Europe was again the hardest hit. Spain economy shrank 0.3% in the first quarter, matching its decline in the previous period. Italy's GDP, which contracted 0.7% in the fourth quarter, fell 0.8% in the January-March period, marking three straight quarters of shrinkage.