Belgium slips into recession

ARTICLE | 
LIFE BELT FOR BELGIAN ECONOMY?
Belgium became the first Eurozone country to fall formally into recession, opening the year for the struggling currency bloc on  a negative note.
Belgian gross domestic product (GDP), the Eurozone's sixth largest, shrank for two consecutive quarters – generally accepted as a minimum for an economy to be considered as being in recession – 0.2% in the fourth quarter on 2011 and 0.1% in the third.
And Belgium may not be the only country to slide into recession, with Eurozone member states hit hard by the sovereign-debt crisis and the austerity measures needed to remedy it. Data on the Eurozone as a whole and its economic outlook in the last quarter of the fiscal 2011 will be released on 15 February when Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands will also release their GDP estimates.
Spain has already reported that its economy had shrunk in the final quarter and it has been predicted that the Eurozone as a whole could contract 0.3% in 2012.
A continuation of a negative economic trend in Belgium is expected in the first quarter of 2012, as well, especially after the introduction of austerity measures by the newly elected government designed to save €11.3 billion.

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