Europe's economy is still in recession, but estimates out Thursday suggest the continent's worst crisis in decades may soon be over, with gross domestic product (GDP) contracting by a moderate 0.3 per cent in the second quarter, according to dpa. The flash estimates by the European statistical office Eurostat also showed GDP in the 16-member eurozone contracting, but by just 0.1 per cent when compared to the first three months of the year. Euro area GDP had shrunk by 1.8 per cent on the quarter in the last quarter of 2008 and by 2.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2009. The figures were also better than what experts in Brussels had predicted in the spring, when they forecast a second quarter rate of -0.7 per cent for both the eurozone and the 27-member European Union. "The situation is much better than we had expected in the spring," said European Commission spokesman Ton van Lierop. Moreover, such moderate contractions show that the ambitious efforts put in place by national governments to boost their economies "are having an effect," the spokesman said. The Eurostat figures came on the back of positive results by two of Europe's biggest economies - Germany and France - which both saw their GDP both grow by 0.3 per cent. However, their performances were offset by those of Italy and Britain, where GDP fell on the previous quarter by 0.5 and 0.8 per cent respectively. Compared with the same quarter of 2008, GDP fell by 4.8 per cent in the 27-member EU and by 4.6 per cent in the 16-member eurozone. Looking at the quarter-on-quarter figures, Europe's worst performers were the Baltic trio of Lithuania (-12.3 per cent), Estonia (-3.7 per cent) and Latvia (-1.6 per cent), along with Hungary (-2.1 per cent), Romania (-1.2 per cent) and the Netherlands (-0.9 per cent). The best performer was Slovakia (2.2 per cent), followed by Germany, France, Greece and Portugal (0.3 per cent each). European GDP has been falling steadily since the first half of 2008, plummeting the economy into its worst downturn in decades and provoking a surge in unemployment.
