Euro-Area Economy Avoids Second Recession on German GDP

Germany helped the euro area avoid its second recession in three years as growth in the region’s largest economy offset contractions in peripheral countries.

Gross domestic product in the 17-nation euro region stagnated in the latest quarter compared with the prior three months, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.2 percent contraction. The German economy expanded 0.5 percent, compared with the 0.1 percent median estimate by economists in a separate survey.