BRUSSELS - The 16-country eurozone's economy barely grew in the fourth quarter, official figures showed Friday, as the single currency bloc's recovery from recession was constrained by its weakest members and Germany, the biggest economy, failed to grow. Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said the eurozone's gross domestic product grew by only 0.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 from the previous three-month period as Germany, the bloc's biggest economy, failed to grow. Though that was the third consecutive quarterly increase, the rise was much lower than anticipated and may stoke concerns that the eurozone may dip back into recession. The third quarter increase of 0.4 per cent had encouraged hopes that the eurozone recovery would be solid. The consensus in the markets, before figures earlier showed Germany posted a flat performance in the fourth quarter, was for a 0.4 per cent increase. The Eurostat figures showed that the countries most affected by the debt crisis struggled. Greece, which is in the eye of the market storm and required EU leaders to pledge support on Thursday, saw its output shrink by 0.8 per cent. Portugal's output was unchanged following two solid quarterly increases and Spain's economy contracted by a further 0.1 per cent. France, the eurozone's second-largest economy, appears to have been the main reason behind the overall rise in the fourth quarter, as it posted a respectable 0.6 per cent increase in output. The wider EU, which includes non-euro members such as Britain and Sweden as well as many countries in Eastern Europe, saw fourth quarter GDP rise by 0.1 per cent too.
