The European Union's economic growth has slowed to zero, new data indicated today, fuelling fears of a slide towards recession.
According to Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, GDP growth slowed to zero in both the 12-country euro zone and the 15-member EU in the first three months of 2003, compared to the previous quarter.
But the figures confirmed that two countries - Germany and The Netherlands - are already technically in recession, having suffered two successive quarters of zero or negative growth.
Germany's GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent, the Netherlands by 0.3 per cent and Italy by 0.1 per cent, according to the Eurostat estimates, based on preliminary data.
Eurostat put first quarter year-on-year growth in the euro zone - excluding Britain, Denmark and Sweden - at 0.8 percent and at 1 per cent in the full EU.
The European Commission, while admitting the data was "disappointing," maintained its forecast of a tentative recovery in the second half of the year.
The EU executive reiterated that gross domestic product should grow by between zero and 0.4 per cent in the second and third quarters, saying the "fog of war" after the Iraq conflict was clouding the latest data.
AFP