Denmark in recession

Denmark has entered a recession, official data showed on Friday, after growth figures for the fourth quarter of 2011 were revised to show a 0.1-percent contraction. In February, the national statistics institute had forecast slight growth of 0.2 percent in the October-December period, following a 0.1-percent contraction in the previous quarter.
A recession is defined by two quarters running of negative growth. "We have revised the numbers because we have received new data concerning the current account, exports and imports, and we have received new numbers from the employment agency and the taxation ministry concerning (among other things) value added tax," Jonas Dan Petersen, an economist at the national statistics agency, told AFP.
Experts however viewed the unexpected slip into recession to be "a technical detail," Danish financial daily Boersen was quick to point out in its online edition. Danske Bank analyst Steen Bocian agreed. "Officially, you can say it's a recession because the numbers shrank both in the third and fourth quarters last year," he told AFP, stressing however that the decline was "very small."
"I don't think one should lend it too much importance," he said. Statistics Denmark meanwhile pointed out that its revised numbers were seasonally adjusted and the margin of error in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) stood at around 0.5 percent. It also maintained the one-percent economic growth estimate for 2011 it announced in February. Sydbank economist Jacob Graven also played down the economic significance of the recession-tag, insisting to Dow Jones Newswires: "It's not a big deal ... Instead of very low growth we have slightly negative growth. It doesn't make a very big difference." Bocian was of the same view.
"I am not saying that I am optimistic about the Danish economy in 2012 because we are not expecting very strong growth (but) when you look at 2012 ... you see a slight improvement," he said. Other experts however stressed the fragility of the Danish economy, pointing out that growth estimates for this year were directly linked to exports. According to Sydbank analyst Michael Staehr, quoted by the Jyllands-Posten daily, "our exports could easily be hit by the global economic slowdown," something that could push the Scandinavian country into a real recession in the near future.