Eurozone in recession until spring 2012

The eurozone, which entered a short recession in late 2011, will return to modest growth in the spring of 2012, official institutes from France, Germany and Italy forecast on Tuesday. The three statistics agencies, which offer a joint assessment of the eurozone economy every quarter, confirmed an earlier outlook of a 0.2 percent contraction in the first quarter of 2012 after a 0.3 percent contraction in the final quarter of 2011. For the third quarter of this year, the three institutes forecast stagnation, followed by a slim 0.1 percent expansion in the fourth quarter. "Activity will gain slowly," the institutes said, "but growth will stay weak."