Euro-zone GDP contracts 0.3% in fourth quarter

FRANKFURT (MarketWatch)
Gross domestic product across the 17-nation euro zone contracted by 0.3% in the final three months of 2011 compared to the previous quarter, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said in a preliminary estimate released Wednesday
Economists had forecast a 0.4% contraction
GDP in the euro zone grew by 0.1% in the third quarter
Compared to the final quarter of 2010, the economy grew 0.7%
Earlier, national data showed that Germany, Europe's largest economy, shrank by a smaller-than-expected 0.2% in the fourth quarter, while France unexpectedly grew
Italy saw its GDP contract for a second consecutive quarter, meeting a widely-used definition of recession