German recession fears mount after more poor industrial data

BERLIN – Government figures show that industrial production in Germany dropped for the third consecutive month in November, a development that’s likely to fuel concerns that Europe’s biggest economy may have entered a technical recession in last year’s fourth quarter.

The Economy Ministry said Tuesday that production was down 1.9 per cent compared with the previous month.

That follows declines of 0.8 per cent and 0.1 per cent in the previous two months, meaning that the crucially important industrial sector will be a sizeable drag on the overall economy during the third quarter.

Germany’s economy shrank in the third quarter largely because of one-time factors related to new car emissions standards. Another quarterly drop would mean Germany will have entered a recession, defined as two straight quarters of negative output