LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: NPR's business news starts with Europe's rocky economy.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: It was a tough three months for the eurozone at the end of last year. The area fell deeper into recession.</s>LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST: And as NPR's John Ydstie reports, it's expected to remain in recession well into 2013.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: The output of the eurozone fell six-tenths of a percent in the final three months of last year, according to a report from Eurostat. The decline translates to an economy contracting at a 2.3 percent annual rate.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Statistics from individual countries show Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, shrinking at that same rate. The eurozone's other big economies, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands also declined.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight says government budget cuts are to blame.</s>NIGEL GAULT: There are austerity policies being put in place, especially in the most troubled regions across southern Europe, and those are taking a toll on growth.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: Germany's economy already appears to be bouncing back from the end of the year downturn, partly because it's Asian export markets are strengthening.  But the prospects for a pick-up for the eurozone as a whole are less hopeful.  European Central Bank officials expect the area will begin to recover later in 2013, but what exactly will fuel that rebound is unclear.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: European financial markets strengthened in the past year, after the ECB committed to do whatever it takes to support the euro. But that  move hasn't yet boosted business activity.</s>JOHN YDSTIE, BYLINE: John Ydstie, NPR News, Washington.
The latest economic numbers from Europe are in and they are not encouraging. The countries that make up the eurozone say their economies shrank at a 2.3 percent annual rate in the fourth quarter. Italy and Spain had especially sharp declines.