RSS Feed
May 15th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
EUROPE’S main equity markets fell in opening deals, with sentiment hurt by news that France sank into recession in the first quarter of 2013, dealers said.
In Paris on Wednesday the CAC 40 index of top shares dipped 0.18 per cent to 3,959.02 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 dropped 0.07 per cent to 8,333.61 points, and London’s FTSE 100 shed 0.19 per cent to 6,673.40 points.
France entered a recession in the first quarter this year with gross domestic product contracting 0.2 per cent, after shrinking the same amount in the last quarter of 2012, official data showed.
A recession corresponds to a drop in growth over two quarters.
In more gloomy official data, the German economy clocked up anaemic growth at the start of 2013 as the freezing winter weather put the brakes on activity.
German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by just 0.1 per cent in the period from January to March.
“This morning’s GDP data from Germany and France were weaker than expected and point to another contraction in the eurozone economy in Q1,” said ABN Amro economist Nick Kounis.
Eurozone economic growth data is meanwhile scheduled for publication later this morning.
Views: 0
Posted in 
