Following the latest gloomy figures, ratings agency Moody’s slashed Italy’s forecast for GDP growth in Italy this year to between zero and 0.5 percent having initially predicted growth of 1.3 percent.
The UK economy grew at its slowest rate last year since 2012, with GDP up by 0.2 percent during the final three months of 2018 compared to 0.6 percent in the previous quarter.
But over the course of 2018, it still grew 1.3 percent year-on-year, beating Germany and Italy, as well as France (0.9 percent).
Independent economist Julian Jessop told the Daily Telegraph: “The UK’s GDP growth has matched or beaten that in the eurozone in each of the last three quarters.
“If the UK is indeed stuck in ‘the slow lane’, it’s hardly alone, and Germany and Italy appear to have pulled off the road completely.”
Germany’s situation will be causing most concern throughout the eurozone, and despite narrowly escaping a huge economic crisis on this occasion, experts are still forecasting difficult times in the months ahead.
Andreas Scheuerle, an economist at Frankfurt-based Dekabank, said: “Germany got away with a black eye.
“But the first quarter is not looking like it is going to be easy, either, as political uncertainties are weighing heavily on corporate confidence.”
Andrew Kenningham of Capital Economics, said Germany had escaped a recession only “by the skin of its teeth” after coming within two hundredths if one percent of the technical definition.
Germany’s economy grew at its weakest rate in over five years in 2018. Growth is forecast to slump a further one percent in 2019 and the country is facing the prospect of a budget shortfall of £21.6billion by 2023.
The European Union’s biggest economy has been battling slowing financial growth, largely resulting from trade disputes triggered by sanctions imposed by the US against the likes of China, potentially costing companies billions of pounds.
Germany also fears the continued stalemate between Britain and the EU will result in a no-deal Brexit, potentially putting 100,000 jobs at risk and hitting its lucrative car making sector hardest, according to a study from the Halle Institute for Economic Research.
The fallout is weighing heavily on business confidence, which fell for the fifth successive month in January.
The intense struggles being experienced by some of the bloc’s biggest and most influential economies highlights the crisis the eurozone faces over the next couple of years.
Across the euro area, growth came in at 0.2 percent for the final quarter of last year, with growth rates cut in half in the final half of 2018.
Last week, the European Commission slashed eurozone growth forecasts for this year to 1.3 percent from 1.9 percent in 2019.
In November, Brussels said it expected eurozone growth to hit 1.9 percent this year and 1.7 percent in 2020.
The Commission has also forecast slowing growth in a 27-nation European Union without Britain after Brexit to dramatically slow to 1.5 percent this year from 2.1 percent in 2018.
Last night, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned stagnation among southern eurozone nations could undermine faith in the European project as prosperity isn’t spreading from the richer north and west of the bloc.
Speaking during her keynote speech at the Munich European Conference last night, IMF chairwoman and chief executive Christine Lagarde said: “Right now, in a world that is questioning the value of international co-operation, the world needs Europe more than ever.
“But first, Europe must succeed at home.
“For that to happen, Europe needs to rekindle economic converge where it has faltered.”