LONDON — Europe appears headed for a recession — if it isn’t in one already.
Economic growth has all but stopped in Europe, statistics showed Tuesday. The stall comes just when Italy, Greece and other nations need growth to help them wriggle out of the chokehold of debt.
The European Union economy grew 0.2 percent in July, August and September, the EU statistics agency said. That is the same growth rate as the previous quarter, and far slower than the 0.7 percent before that.
And the picture is probably even worse. The statistics did not include Italy and Greece, the two countries in the most debt trouble. And their debt crisis only got worse in October, the month after this snapshot was taken.
Besides lowering standards of living and hurting the job market in Europe, a recession would be bad news for the U.S., which sells 20 percent of its exports to Europe, and for Asia.
Taken as a whole, Europe also has the largest economy in the world, producing $16.2 trillion in goods and services last year. The United States produced $14.5 trillion last year, China $5.9 trillion.
So economic sickness in Europe has the ability to slow growth around the world.
“People are uncertain,” said Ferdinand Fichtner of the German Economic Institute DIW. “That is poison for growth.”
Fear that the economic slowdown will make the debt crisis worse was evident in financial markets Tuesday. Borrowing costs rose for many nations, an indication that investors are nervous about lending to them.
“The uncertainty caused by the sovereign debt crisis is lying like mildew upon the eurozone economy,” said Christope Weil, an economist at Commerzbank, referring to the 17 nations in the EU that use the euro as their currency.
