Euro zone teetering on brink of recession

By Jonathan Cable

(Reuters) - The euro zone economy is in danger of tipping into recession, with the services sector shrinking this month along with manufacturing, tempering a wave of optimism after a new bailout deal for Greece struck this week.

Surveys of purchasing managers published on Wednesday showed unexpectedly weak activity in the region's most powerful economy, Germany, and in France.

This is as well as in the bloc's floundering debtor states, such as Spain, where unemployment is running at 23 percent, and Greece where the euro debt crisis began more than two years ago and continuous cuts have provoked riots.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/22/us-economy-europe-idUSTRE81L0R020120222