Despite the energy - and subsequent inflation - crisis, the eurozone economy once again defied recession in the fourth quarter, showing incredible resilience. But it was a narrow escape. Most economies are currently stagnating with near-zero growth. Germany and Italy, as big industrial economies, have seen slight contractions as they suffer more from the energy crisis while France and Spain have managed to eke out small growth rates. Ireland grew by a whopping 3.5% - the recent swings in Irish GDP are to a large degree driven by multinational accounting activity – which has added substantially to the small growth in ... (full story)