International News

PARIS (AP) The recession across the economy of the 17 European Union countries that use the euro extended into its sixth quarter longer than the calamitous slump that hit the euro area during the financial crisis of 2008-9.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said Wednesday that nine of the 17 eurozone countries are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the eurozone economy contracted 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months.

Though that's an improvement on the previous quarter's 0.6 percent decline, it's another unwelcome landmark for the single currency bloc as it grapples with a debt crisis that's prompted a number of governments to introduce a raft of austerity measures.

This recession, though not as deep as the one in 2008, is the longest in the history of the euro, which was launched in 1999. A recession is officially defined as two straight quarters of negative growth.

There was also bad news for the wider 27-country EU, which includes non-euro members such as Britain and Poland. It too is now officially in recession after shrinking by a quarterly rate of 0.1 percent in the first quarter, following a 0.5 percent drop in the previous period.

The eurozone has been shrinking since the fourth quarter of 2011. Initially it was just the countries at the forefront of its debt crisis, such as Greece and Portugal that were contracting.

But the malaise is now spreading to the so-called core. Figures earlier Wednesday showed Germany, Europe's largest economy, grew by a less-than-anticipated quarterly rate of 0.1 percent, largely because of a severe winter.

However, Germany's paltry growth still allowed it to avoid a recession following the previous quarter's 0.7 percent fall when orders for the country's high-value good from its struggling euro neighbors declined.

France, Europe's second-largest economy, has not avoided that fate. On the first anniversary of Francois Hollande becoming president, figures showed that France contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.2 percent for the second quarter running.

"We are in Europe, the eurozone countries are our main clients and our main suppliers, and when the environment around us is depressed, well, that's the main factor in the slowing of the French economy," French finance minister Pierre Moscovici said.

This marks the third time that France has been in recession since 2008, when a banking crisis pushed the global economy into its deepest contraction since World War II.

And its outlook doesn't appear to be too rosy.

"The economy will remain under pressure in the coming quarters from rising unemployment, tight credit and higher taxation," said Zach Witton, economist at Moody's Analytics.

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Pylas contributed from London.