ONE euro crisis may be over, but another has begun. The single currency is no longer under siege in financial markets, but it will not prove politically viable unless growth returns. Any residual hopes of an early recovery were dashed by GDP figures published on May 15th. These showed the euro zone still mired in recession.

Euro-area output shrank in the first three months of this year by 0.2% compared with its level in the final quarter of 2012 (see chart). That decline, which was a bit worse than expected, left GDP 1% lower than a year ago. Output has now contracted for six consecutive quarters in a recession stretching back to late 2011.

The downturn is still steepest in southern Europe. Output fell by 0.5% in both Italy and Spain, the third- and fourth-biggest economies in the euro zone. But GDP is now declining in most euro-zone countries, including France, the area’s second-largest economy, which is back in recession following a second quarter of declining output, of 0.2%. The main exception remains Germany, the biggest economy, though it barely grew in the first three months of this year. Output was up by a lower-than-expected 0.1% (following a 0.7% fall in late 2012).

The recession could well drag on for yet another quarter. Based on a recent survey of purchasing managers, output in services and manufacturing continued to shrink last month. Even if a recovery does get under way later this year, it will probably be a feeble affair. Earlier this month the European Commission forecast that annual GDP would fall by 0.4% this year and that it would grow by only 1.2% in 2014.

The danger is that even if growth does reappear it will be detectable only in decimal-point statistics and not in people’s lives. The biggest risk stems from unemployment, which now stands at 12.1% in the euro area, the highest on records going back to 1995. That overall rate masks a sharp contrast between Germany, where it is just 5.4%, and Spain and Greece, where it has reached 27%. The disparity is still greater for youth unemployment, which ranges from 7.6% in Germany to 56% in Spain and 64% in Greece.

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Earlier this month the European Central Bank (ECB) brought down its main policy rate, from 0.75% to 0.5%. This week’s poor GDP figures will increase pressure on the ECB to take further action to foster a recovery when its governing council meets in early June.