By Nick Mann | 15 November 2012

The eurozone is back in recession after shrinking for the second successive quarter, Eurostat revealed this morning.

Estimates by the European Union’s statistical service show a 0.1% contraction for the single currency bloc in the three months to September, following a 0.2% reduction in the previous quarter.

Five of the 17 eurozone economies grew in the third quarter, including Germany and France at 0.2%. Six shrank, including the Netherlands with a 1.1% fall in output and Portugal with a 0.8% reduction. One economy, Belgium, was static. Figures were not available for the remaining five.

The strongest growth in the eurozone was in Estonia, where output rose by 1.7%.

Today’s estimates mean the eurozone economy is now 0.6% smaller than it was at the end of last September.

The European Union narrowly avoided also falling into recession, posting a 0.1% growth rate for the third quarter after shrinking by 0.2% in the previous quarter. However, compared with the previous year, the economy has shrunk by 0.4%.

In terms of the quarter, the EU’s performance was buoyed by growth in the UK economy (1%), Latvia (1.7%) and Lithuania (1.3%).

Both the eurozone and the EU as a whole were outperformed by the US economy, which grew in size by 0.5% in the third quarter and was 2.3% bigger at the end of September than it was 12 months earlier.

But the European performance did compare favourably with Japan, whose economy shrank by 0.9% in the three months ending September.

Today’s figures come just hours after trade unions held a ‘day of action' across the EU in protest at the impact of government’s austerity measures on employment and economic growth.