VOA标准英语2013--European Recession Now Longer Than 2008 Financial Crisis

 

European Recession Now Longer Than 2008 Financial Crisis

Of the 17 nations that make up the common currency bloc¹ - nine countries are now in recession.

While not as steep as the recession that came after the 2008 financial crisis - Commerzbank chief economist² Jorg Kramer says this has been the longest.

“Usually a recession lasts only two, three, maximum four quarters.  But six quarters is a lot.  And to make the thing worse, the forward looking indicators³ such as the euro zone PMI, a gauge⁴ of manufacturing activity, these indicators have declined two months in a row.  Therefore we really have a problem in the euro zone,” Kramer said.

ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski says in France, Europe's second largest economy, what is now a double dip contraction⁵ for the French economy spells more trouble.

“We do see some very vague light at the end of the tunnel in Spain, in Greece, because there we do see that these structural⁶ reforms are working.  In France, nothing has happened so far,"Brzeski said.

Even Europe's powerhouse economy, Germany - just barely avoided recession, growing only one tenth of one percent between January and March this year.

With an overall population of more than half a billion people, the European Union is currently the world's largest export market.

And that means a slowdown there could hurt the U.S. economy as well.

“I mean, Europe is in a recession, China is slowing, but right now, even our own fundamentals are really lukewarm at best, so we’ve got ourselves in this pattern that we’ve seen each of the past three years where the economy starts out great the first 3 or 4 months of the year, then we tend to hit a slowdown in about the second quarter," said  Bank Rate.com's Greg Mcbride.

Analysts⁷ say government austerity measures in high debt countries such as Greece, Spain and Italy have contributed to record high unemployment within the currency union and to an  economic slowdown that some forecasters say is unlikely to lift until well into 2014.

1 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 indicators   

（仪器上显示温度、压力、耗油量等的）指针( indicator的名词复数 )； 指示物； （车辆上的）转弯指示灯； 指示信号

参考例句：

• The economic indicators are better than expected. 经济指标比预期的好。
• It is still difficult to develop indicators for many concepts used in social science. 为社会科学领域的许多概念确立一个指标仍然很难。

4 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

5 contraction   

n.缩略词，缩写式，害病

参考例句：

• The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
• The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。

6 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。