Eurozone growth 'slows sharply in Q3'
2010-12-03 11:14:43
Eurozone economic growth slowed sharply to 0.4 percent in the third quarter, down from 1 percent in the second, data showed Thursday at a time of mounting financial turmoil in the 16-nation single currency bloc.
For the full 27-member European Union, momentum edged up 0.5 percent, the statistics agency Eurostat said in a second estimate. The agency, in an initial assessment November 12, had put third-quarter EU growth at 0.4 percent.
The EU's executive commission warned last week that debt pressures threatened eurozone economic growth, which it said would decline to 1.5 percent next year from 1.7 percent in 2010 and then pick up to 1.8 percent in 2012.
Earlier Thursday, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn called the condition in Europe serious.
On Sunday, the European Union and the IMF announced an 85-billion-euro ($111 billion) bailout allowing Ireland to shore up its banking sector and meet its debt obligations. The total figure includes a contribution from the Irish pension reserve fund.
"We should not underestimate the importance of this crisis which, in Ireland, is mostly coming from the banking sector," Strauss-Kahn said after meeting Indian Finance Minister in New Delhi.