According to reports from the European Union statistics office, Eurostat, the 2008 fourth-quarter gross domestic product in the 15 euro-zone countries contracted 1.5 percent, in comparison to the 1.2 percent drop in the same quarter the previous year.

The severest-ever contraction in the euro-zone economy, since the beginning of records in 1995, has mounted pressure on the European Central Bank towards a by 50 basis points' cut in interest rates in three weeks.

The latest GDP drop was in excess of consensus estimates of a 1.3 percent fall. With two successive quarters of shrinking GDP - the 0.2 percent declines in the second and third quarters - the euro-zone GDP clearly meets the extensive-used definition of recession.

In the opinion of economist Christoph Weil, of Commerzbank, the 1.5 percent contraction of GDP reiterates the fact that the euro-zone economy is amid its deepest downturn, since the end of the Second World War - and "now it is official!"

The euro-zone markets were somewhat prepared for the dismal figures after Germany, Europe's biggest economy, announced that its fourth-quarter GDP had plunged 2.1 percent.

Economist Joerg Radeke, of the Center for Economic and Business Research, remarked: "Today's data wipes out any illusion that the euro zone is getting off lightly in this global downturn. Indeed, what started as financial market turmoil has long moved to the real economy!"