The eurozone economy fell into a double-dip contraction in the final quarter of last year, shrinking 0.7 per cent from the previous three months but outperforming economists’ expectations after fresh restrictions were imposed to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The drop reversed some of the previous quarter’s strong growth, leaving gross domestic product down 6.8 per cent over the full year after the bloc’s historic recession in the first half of 2020, Eurostat said on Tuesday.

That compares with quarter-on-quarter GDP growth of 1 per cent in the US and 2.6 per cent in China in the final three months of 2020. The eurozone has been harder hit by the spread of the virus and is recovering more slowly than other major economies — it is not expected to return to its pre-pandemic output level until the middle of next year.