Eurozone Slides Into Recession as Inflation Hurts Consumption

The eurozone has slipped into recession as Germany, its largest economy, wobbled, suggesting that the impact of Russia’s war in Ukraine may have been deeper than expected earlier this year.

While the U.S. economy has so far brushed aside higher borrowing rates and continues to grow thanks to robust consumption, employment and an extended market rally, Europe is lagging ever further behind, stuck in the economic equivalent of long Covid. While the U.S. economy is now 5.4% larger than it was before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, the eurozone economy is just 2.2% bigger.

Inflation driven by a spike in energy costs and stubbornly high food prices has softened in Europe recently but remains much higher than policy makers would like and is affecting consumption negatively.

The weakness in Germany is a particular concern. In past decades, the country’s economy often managed to recover rapidly from economic shocks thanks to the strength of its highly competitive exporters.

But global trade has suffered under the Covid-19 pandemic and mounting geopolitical tensions, and it may not offer the same degree of support this time. Factory output in the country showed a steep drop in March. And the continuing war in Ukraine, a close neighbour, is another major source of uncertainty for the region.

Because of its size, the German economy on its own can drag the eurozone up or down. The eurozone’s slide into recession at the start of the year came in spite of growth in France, Italy and Spain, its other large economies.

Economists think all this points to a slow and protracted recovery for the continent later this year, where consumers and businesses are also feeling the drag from higher borrowing costs as the European Central Bank continues to raise interest rates to fight inflation. The eurozone’s slide into recession wasn’t so dramatic as to trigger a pause in the ECB’s rate-raising campaign, according to most analysts.

The European Union’s statistics agency said Thursday the combined gross domestic product of the countries that share the euro fell at an annualised 0.4% during the three months through March, having also declined in the final three months of last year.

Eurostat had previously estimated that the currency area’s economy grew slightly in the first quarter, but the sizeable change to the data from Germany and weakness in Ireland and Finland pushed it into contraction. This left the region with two consecutive quarters of shrinking output, matching the official definition of an economic recession.

Economists expect growth to resume in the three months through June as falling energy bills ease the pressure on household budgets, but any rebound is likely to be anaemic. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Wednesday said it expected the eurozone’s economy to grow 0.9% this year, roughly half as much as the U.S. economy.

The main difference between the eurozone and the U.S. is consumer spending. Americans are spending freely on the activities they skipped during pandemic lockdowns, such as travel, concerts and dining out. Unlike Europeans, they haven’t had to cut their spending on goods to be able to do so. In Europe, household spending fell in both the final quarter of last year, and the first quarter of 2023. Imports also fell sharply in both quarters, a sign that weakness in the eurozone is affecting businesses in other parts of the world.

One reason for the growing trans-Atlantic economic gap is the amount of savings Americans accumulated during the pandemic. Oxford Economics estimates that while excess savings in the U.S. stood at around 8.3% of annual economic output at the end of 2022, in the eurozone the equivalent was just over 5%. Americans have also been more willing to draw on those savings, with surveys showing Europeans are conscious of the uncertainties flowing from the war in Ukraine.

Back in Europe, while energy prices have normalised from their 2022 peaks, food prices have continued to rise at a rapid pace, weakening household spending on other goods and services. U.S. food prices have been rising half as quickly as their European equivalents so far this year.

The European Central Bank’s series of rate increases, which started in July last year, have now worked their way through the currency area’s financial system. The drag on growth from that source is likely to build during coming months, with the ECB signalling that it intends to raise its key interest rate for an eighth straight meeting next week.

“A peak in underlying inflation wouldn’t be sufficient to declare victory: We need to see convincing evidence that inflation returns to our 2% target in a sustained and timely manner,” ECB policy maker Isabel Schnabel said Wednesday. “We aren’t at that point yet.”

The OECD said it expects eurozone inflation to fall to 5.8% this year from 8.4% in 2022, but remain well above the ECB’s target at 3.2% in 2024.

One reason for the eurozone’s slide into recession is that Ireland—long the currency area’s fastest-growing economy—experienced a 44.7% decline in factory output during March, likely driven by U.S. pharmaceutical companies that operate in the country. That led to a 17.3% annualized fall in the country’s GDP during the first quarter.

Ireland’s statistics office hasn’t offered a reason for that drop in production, but figures it released Wednesday showed a rebound of 70.7% in April, suggesting the first-quarter contraction is unlikely to be sustained.

The eurozone’s poor economic performance so far this year partly reflects the costs of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The Russian economy contracted 2% last year and the OECD expects it to shrink a further 1.5% this year and 0.4% in 2024. Ukraine’s economy shrank by a third in 2022, and is likely to have suffered further damage following the destruction of a dam and hydroelectric plant in the country’s south this week.

In the U.S., unlike in Europe, a weakening of the jobs market is required before the National Bureau of Economic Research, an academic group, declares a recession. That has yet to happen in the eurozone, with employment increasing 0.6% during the first quarter.

Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu delivered a warning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a recent visit to Washington: Already-high airfares will surge if the war in Iran doesn’t end soon.

Sununu, a Republican who represents some of the biggest airlines as president of the industry group Airlines for America, has for weeks sounded the alarm to Trump administration officials about the economic fallout from high jet fuel prices. The war, Sununu has argued, must come to a close soon, or things will get worse.

Administration officials have gotten the message.

Privately, President Trump’s advisers are increasingly worried that Republicans will pay a political price for the rising fuel costs, according to people familiar with the matter. Many of those advisers are eager to end the war, hoping prices will begin to moderate before November’s midterm elections.

The fallout from the U.S.-Israeli attack in late February has slowed traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane, triggering a sharp increase in oil, gasoline and jet-fuel prices.

That means consumers are grappling with high costs ahead of the summer travel season, as they consider vacation plans.

Sixty-three per cent of Americans said they put a great deal or a good amount of blame on Trump for the increase in gas prices, according to a new poll conducted by NPR, PBS and Marist.

More than 8 in 10 Americans said struggles at the gas pump are putting strain on their finances.

Jet-fuel prices roughly doubled in a matter of weeks after the war began, and they have remained high. Airlines have said that will add billions of dollars of additional expenses this year, squeezing profit margins.

U.S. airlines spent more than $5 billion on fuel in March—up 30% from a year earlier, according to government data.

Carriers have been raising ticket prices, hoping to pass the cost along to consumers, and they are culling flights that will no longer make money at higher price levels.

In March, the price of a U.S. domestic round-trip economy ticket rose 21% from a year earlier to $570, according to Airlines Reporting Corp., which tracks travel-agency sales.

So far, airlines have said the higher fares haven’t deterred bookings and they are hoping to recoup more of the fuel-cost increases as the year goes on.

Earlier this week, Trump said the current price of oil is “a very small price to pay for getting rid of a nuclear weapon from people that are really mentally deranged.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that if Iran got a nuclear weapon, the country would have more leverage to keep the strait closed and “make our gas prices like $9 a gallon or $8 a gallon.”

Trump has taken steps in recent days to bring the war to an end. Late Tuesday, the president paused a plan to help guide trapped commercial ships out of the Strait of Hormuz, expressing optimism that a deal could be reached with Iran to end the conflict.

Crude oil prices fell below $100 a barrel on Wednesday, after reports that Iran and the U.S. are working with mediators on a one-page framework to restart negotiations aimed at ending the conflict and opening the strait.

Sununu said Trump administration officials are conscious of the economic fallout from the war: “They get it…and I think that’s why they’re trying to get through the war as fast as they can.”

But he cautioned that it could take months for prices to return to prewar levels.

“Ticket prices won’t go down immediately” after the strait is fully reopened, Sununu said. “You’re looking at elevated ticket prices through the summer and fall because it takes a while for the prices to go down.”

Since the initial U.S.-Israeli attack in late February, Sununu has met in Washington with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett, representatives from the Transportation Department and senior White House officials.

A White House official confirmed that Hassett and Sununu have discussed the effect of increased fuel prices on the airline industry. The official said the conversation touched on how the industry can mitigate the impact of high jet fuel prices on consumers.

“The president and his entire energy team anticipated these short-term disruptions to the global energy markets from Operation Epic Fury and had a plan prepared to mitigate these disruptions,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said, pointing to the administration’s decision to waive a century-old shipping law in a bid to lower the cost of moving oil.

Rogers said the administration is working with industry representatives to “address their concerns, explore potential actions, and inform the president’s policy decisions.”

A Treasury Department spokesman pointed to Bessent’s recent comments on Fox News that the U.S. economy remains strong despite price increases. The spokesman said Treasury officials have met with airline executives, who have reaffirmed strong ticket bookings.

“We’re cognizant that this short-term move up in prices is affecting the American people, but I am also confident, on the other side of this, prices will come down very quickly,” Bessent told Fox News on Monday.

The war has already contributed to one casualty in the industry: Spirit Airlines. Company representatives have said they were forced to close the airline because the sustained surge in jet-fuel prices derailed the company’s plan to emerge from chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The Trump administration and Spirit failed to come to an agreement for the company to receive a financial lifeline of as much as $500 million from the federal government.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has argued that the Iran war wasn’t the cause of Spirit’s demise, pointing to the company’s past financial struggles, as well as the Biden administration’s decision to challenge a merger with JetBlue.

Other budget airlines have also turned to the federal government for help since the U.S.-Israeli attack. A group of budget airlines last month sought $2.5 billion in financial assistance to offset higher fuel costs, and they separately wrote to lawmakers asking for relief from certain ticket taxes.

Eurozone Slides Into Recession as Inflation Hurts Consumption

Weaknesses in Germany and Ireland more than offset growth in other economies at the start of the year

Administration officials have spoken to the airline industry, which has voiced concerns about the rising costs.