Euro zone 4th quarter GDP falls 1.6%, EU down by 1.5%

BRUSSELS, April 7 (Xinhua) -- The euro zone's GDP fell 1.6 percent quarter-on-quarter in the last three months of 2008 because of weakening investments, consumption and exports, the EU's official statistics agency Eurostat said Tuesday.

Growth rate slipped 1.5 percent in the European Union (EU) in the period, according to Eurostat's second estimates.

Growth rates declined 0.3 percent in the euro zone and EU in the third quarter of last year.

Compared with the same period in 2007, the seasonally adjusted GDP in the 15-nation euro zone and the 27-nation EU contracted respectively by 1.5 percent and 1.4 percent.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the euro zone's three major "engines" -- personal consumption, investments and exports -- all saw slippage.

Fourth-quarter household final consumption expenditures declined by 0.3 percent month-on-month and by 0.4 percent in the EU, according to Eurostat.

Investments fell by 4.0 percent in the euro zone and by 3.3 percent in the EU. Exports fell by 6.7 percent and 6.1 in the two zones respectively, while imports decreased by 4.7 percent in the euro zone and by 5.0 percent in the EU.

In the last three months of 2008, among EU member states with available seasonally adjusted GDP data, Slovakia grew by 2.1 percent, the highest growth compared with the previous quarter, followed by Cyprus with 0.6 percent, Greece and Poland both with 0.3 percent.

Slovakia joined the euro zone on Jan. 1.

Ireland recorded a growth contraction of 7.1 percent, the steepest decline among EU member states compared with the third quarter of 2008.

Germany, the largest economy in Europe, plunged by 2.1 percent, while France shrank by 1.1 percent.

Economic growth in both regions was hit hard by the global financial crisis.

The GDP grew by 0.8 percent in the euro zone and by 0.9 percent in the EU for all of 2008, compared with an increase of 2.6 percent and 2.9 percent for 2007, Eurostat said.