January 2, 2012
European leaders were on Monday confronted by the ugly prospect of a second recession in three years after figures showed that manufacturing output across the eurozone declined in December for a fifth consecutive month.
Italy, Greece and Spain saw the sharpest falls in production during the final month of 2011 as output and new business fell across all areas of production.
Stock markets in Paris, Frankfurt and Milan rose after the figures proved slightly better than expected in France and Germany, with the German Dax up 3% at 6075 and Paris Cac up 2% at 3222. The Netherlands and Austria also all saw only mild falls.
But the first economic figures of the new year were widely interpreted as a strong signal that the eurozone is heading into recession. To emphasise the lack of confidence among investors in the prospects for the eurozone, the value of the euro continued its decline against the dollar and the yen.
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