Eurozone recession deepens, as Germany posts surprising declines

The euro fell to a three-week low against the dollar, just weeks after the 17-nation eurozone reported a deeper drop into recession for the final three months of 2012.

It’s a grim picture for the debt-ridden eurozone, Reuters reports.

Germany, France and Italy all experienced surprisingly big economic contractions at the tail end of 2012, BBC reports. Germany, in fact, the largest economy in the eurozone, saw its output fall 0.6 percent — the farthest in months, BBC reported.

A sharp decline in exports was the cause of Germany’s surprising figures, BBC said.

“Comparatively weak foreign trade was the decisive factor for the decline in the economic performance at the end of the year,” one official with Germany’s statistics office said, in the BBC report. “In the final quarter of 2012, exports of goods declined significantly more than imports of goods.”