East Europe also shrinks

Bloomberg

Five eastern members of the European Union reported contractions Friday, including a sharper-than-forecast turnaround in Slovakia, which slumped 5.4 percent. Romania and Hungary declined an annual 6.4 percent.

"This is very bad. It shows that the euro-region’s problems get fully translated into the Slovak economy," said Maria Valachyova, an economist at Slovenska Sporitelna in Bratislava.

Hungary’s deepening recession came as industrial production dropped an average annual 21.8 percent in the first three months, including a 25.2 percent record plunge in February. In Romania GDP shrank 2.6 percent. The Czech economy contracted 3.4 percent on an annual basis. Bulgaria’s economy contracted 3.5 percentin the first quarter of the year.