Bubble and Crash

The 15 countries sharing the euro are teetering on the brink of recession but should just escape the worst, the European Commission said on Wednesday, slashing its economic forecasts for this year.

However Germany, the eurozone's largest economy which contracted 0.5 percent in the second quarter, and Spain will not be so lucky, falling into recession as growth falters badly.

Britain, outside the eurozone, will share the same fate, according to estimates from the European Union's executive arm.

The commission cut its eurozone growth estimate for the whole of 2008 to 1.3 percent from a forecast of 1.7 percent given in April, marking an even sharper slowdown from the solid 2.6 percent growth recorded last year.