Europe is now going through an economic slowdown, and it’s bad news for two of the continent’s top economies. Business Insider reports that industrial production is down across the Eurozone, and that Germany and Italy are at the brink of a recession. The pace of growth has been slow in recent years, but data released on Monday has provided solid proof that the Eurozone is slowing down economically.
The global economy is off to a rough start in 2019, with disastrous trade numbers coming out of China, and the US government shutdown breaking the historical record for length of time. China’s trade performance is expected to hit Europe particularly hard. Germany, Europe’s leading economy, saw industrial production drop 1.9% in November alone, with an annual drop of 4.6%. The German economy relies heavily on manufacturing, so when manufacturing suffers, the whole economy tends to take a hit. Germany and Italy are not entirely alone either; many European countries, including France, are approaching a recession, but haven’t arrived there yet. French GDP growth is expected to be fall from 0.4% to 0.2% in the fourth quarter.
Germany and Italy are the first and fourth largest economies in Europe respectively. Combined, the two countries have a GDP of $5.5 trillion. If you add France into the mix, that figure rises to over $7.6 trillion.
