Germany Just Avoided Recession By A Hair

The German economy grew by 0.1% in the third quarter. That's as weak as growth gets.

The first report for the previous quarter showed a 0.2% drop in output from Q1. Another quarter of contraction would have meant that Germany was officially in a recession.

The fact that the country is hovering just barely in growth territory is pretty terrible news for the European economy. Since 2008, Germany has been the continent's star peformer, showcasing a mild crash, low employment, and decent growth. That period might now be over.

We saw French GDP for Q3 already Friday morning: it came in at just 0.3%, a little higher than analysts expected but still pretty weak.