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Eurozone emerges from recession

The eurozone economy has emerged from recession after growing between July and

September, figures have shown.

The 16 nations that use the euro collectively grew 0.4%, after shrinking by

0.2% between April and June.

The French and German economies both grew for a second consecutive quarter,

confirming the eurozone's two largest economies are out of recession.

However, both France and Germany grew by less than expected, a sign of how

tentative signs of recovery remain.

The European Union as a whole - 27 nations including the UK and Sweden - also

emerged from recession, growing 0.2% in the third quarter.

Germany's economy grew by 0.7% in the quarter, while France grew by 0.3%. Both

economies and Japan ended year-long contractions in the second quarter of the

year, while the US has since joined them after its economy grew in the

third-quarter.

However, the UK remains in recession, having contracted by 0.4% between July

and September.

The UK, Europe's second-largest economy, has now contracted for six consecutive

quarters, the first time this has happened since quarterly figures were first

recorded in 1955.

Faster recovery

ANALYSIS

Nigel Cassidy, business reporter, Brussels Every recovery is different and the

slow crawl out of recession in the eurozone countries is no exception. This

time it's continental European exporters who are responsible for most of the

new growth - and that in spite of an uncomfortably strong euro, without which

firms would have undoubtedly sold even more goods to faster-growing markets

overseas. In the main, consumers have not changed their behaviour - retail

sales have risen slightly but unemployment is still rising, and will do for

many months to come. Economists are quick to point out that a great deal of the

growth is thanks to economic stimulus packages which are bolstering European

economies. Germany alone is currently lending 85bn euros of its taxpayers'

money. Nobody can even guess what will happen to growth when national

governments stop pumping credit into the system - as the European Commission is

urging them to do within two years.

Economists had expected Germany to grow by 0.8% in the third quarter, and

France to grow by double what it actually did in the third quarter - predicting

growth of 0.6%.

Germany's Desatis statistics office also revised upwards its estimate for

growth in the second quarter, to 0.4% from 0.3%.

Though the data on Friday was weaker than expected, few analysts had even

predicted at the start of the year Germany and France would start to recover so

soon.

"The German economy has emerged from the deep recession earlier and faster than

many had thought," ING economist Carsten Brzeski said.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told Europe 1 radio that while the

country's economy will have contracted during 2009 overall, it would enter next

year "with elan".

France and Germany may have been less hard hit than the UK by the global

economic slowdown because their financial sectors, which were at the heart of

the crisis, account for a smaller proportion of their economies.

Stronger exports and consumer spending, as well as government stimulus

packages, have contributed to the growth in the eurozone's largest economies.

The data released on Friday showed that Italy, Austria and Slovakia had also

emerged from recession in the third quarter.

However, Spain's troubled economy contracted further in the quarter.