LONDON (AP) — Further signs emerged Wednesday to showthat the paltry economic recovery in the
17-country eurozone is losingsteam.Despite evidence that growth was weak even in the lastquarter of the
year, few economists think it will prompt the EuropeanCentral Bank to provide stimulus at Thursday’s policy
meeting. Lastmonth, the ECB cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low of 0.25percent.Figures from
Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, showedretail sales across the region fell a monthly 0.2 percent in
October.That followed a 0.6 percent decline in September and confoundedexpectations in the markets for a
modest increase.Meanwhile,financial information company Markit confirmed its purchasing managers’index — a
gauge of business activity — fell in November. Though theindex was revised up from the initial estimate of
51.5 to 51.7, it wasdown on October’s 51.9.Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist, said the decline
confirms that the recovery "lost some momentum" in November.For an economy that grew by a
quarterly rate of 0.1 percent in the third quarter, that’s hardly encouraging."Whilewe shouldn’t lose
sight of the fact that the region is growing again,in marked contrast to the decline seen earlier in the
year, it’s clearlya concern that the rate of growth remains so fragile," said Williamson.Whatis
particularly worrisome is the fact that the Markit data show thatthe eurozone’s second and third largest
economies, France and Italy, maybe contracting further."Declines in the PMIs for Italy andFrance raise
the prospect of these countries’ economies contractingagain in the fourth quarter, meaning Italy’s recession
will haveextended into a staggering tenth successive quarter and France will haveslid back into a new
recession," said Williamson.Luckily for theeurozone as a whole, its powerhouse economy, Germany, is
growingstrongly — its PMI reading of 55.4 was a 29-month high. Spain was theother bright spot as the
eurozone’s fourth-largest economy continues toexhibit signs of life in the face of its debt problems and a
sky-highunemployment rate of around 26 percent.The economic backdrop islikely to feature heavily when Mario
Draghi, the ECB’s president, holdshis monthly press conference following Thursday’s meeting of thegoverning
council. Though the central bank is expected to maintain adovish tone, most economists think it will keep
its policy unchanged atleast until early next year. Further measures that it may considerinclude making
banks pay to keep funds on deposit at the central bank inthe hope that it may encourage them to
lend.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast,
rewritten orredistributed.