23 January 2009
Brussels: The European commission in Brussels is predicting the worst recession in 60 years, following a -1.8 percent contraction of GDP across the Eurozone in 2008, according to the French newspaper Les Echos.
The financial crisis and the sharp slowdown in international economic activity have provoked a slide in commercial trade and constricted credit markets with disastrous consequences for European manufacturing.
The European commission believes no European country will be safe from the crisis, although Germany and France are predicted to suffer less severe downturns than countries such as Ireland and the Baltic countries. The European commission predicts public deficits and unemployment in Europe to rise to 8.7 percent. EU restrictions on national debt levels have effectively been put on hold until the end of the financial crisis. Some foresee government deficits climbing as high as 74 percent of national budgets by 2010.
