Eurozone avoids recession

A strong export performance from Germany helped the economy of the 17 countries that use the euro narrowly avoid a recession in the first three months of the year. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, was primarily behind the better-than-expected performance as a strong export performance helped it grow by 0.5 percent.

Of the euro's 17 members, seven are in recession: Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.