Financial Times: Winter bites in EU but with some bright spots

“Wintry conditions are gripping Europe’s economies as the biting winds caused by financial market storms lead to deep and protracted recessions, but regional variations are still distinguishable.

“The latest Financial Times economic weather map for Europe shows a further substantial deterioration since it was last published in October, when the devastating impact on the global economy of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank, was only just becoming apparent.

“European industrial production collapsed in November, data this month have shown, and business confidence surveys suggest the bottom of the recession - set to be among the worst since the second world war - has not yet been reached.”

Source: Ralph Atkins and Ben Hall, Financial Times, January 20, 2009.