La Belgique est le premier pays de la zone euro officiellement en récession

Infographie : François Descheemaekere

[Euractiv]

Selon des données dévoilées ce mercredi, la Belgique est le premier pays de la zone euro à être officiellement entré en récession au second semestre de l’année dernière, ouvrant la voie à la contraction de l’économie européenne, annoncée pour 2012.

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the eurozone's sixth largest economy shrank by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, following a quarterly contraction of 0.1% in the July-September period. Two consecutive quarters of contraction is generally accepted by economists as the minimum for an economy to be considered in a recession. The news comes on the heels of depressing data on Tuesday (31 January), which showed unemployment in the eurozone had reached 10.4% in December, casting a dark cloud over growth prospects only one day after EU leaders agreed to focus energy on generating jobs and growth.
Belgium is often cited as a harbinger of things to come in Europe and many countries in the region are already sliding towards recession, hit by the eurozone debt crisis and a wave of austerity required to cure it.
Lire : euractiv.com