Eurozone Likely In Recession, Purchasing Managers’ Index Surveys Show

The downturn in eurozone business activity surprisingly deepened in December, according to closely watched surveys which indicated the bloc’s economy is almost certainly in recession. It was a broad-based decline with activity deteriorating in both Germany and France and across services and manufacturing, the surveys showed. Last quarter, the eurozone economy contracted 0.1%, official data has shown, and December’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) – seen as a good gauge of economic health – suggested activity has now declined in every month of this quarter. That would mark two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, meeting the technical definition of recession. The…