FRANKFURT, germany — The eurozone economy officially shifted to contraction from stagnation in the second quarter of 2012, portending a recession later in the year that will put even more pressure on political leaders struggling to keep the common currency intact.
Gross domestic product from April to June fell 0.2 percent from the previous quarter in the 17 members of the European Union that use the euro, according to preliminary estimates by Eurostat, the Union’s statistics agency. In the previous quarter, growth had been zero.
The decline in output, caused partly by government budget cutting, means that the eurozone is likely to enter recession — broadly defined as two consecutive quarters shrinking output — later this year, economists said.
“Growth of the German economy was no longer strong enough to keep the total euro zone economy above the zero line,” Christoph Weil, an economist at Commerzbank, wrote in a note to clients.
Germany grew more than expected from April through June, expanding 0.3 percent. In addition, France avoided a downturn with a third straight quarter of zero growth. Economists had predicted that France would sink into negative territory.
