Eurozone factory downturn deepens as core economies struggle Earlier data from Germany, Europe's largest economy, showed its manufacturing sector shrank for the eighth month and French figures showed a decline in all but one of the last 15 months. Ben May, economist at Capital Economics, said the situation in the core economies of the eurozone was worsening. "Rather than the strength in the core dragging the periphery out of recession it appears more likely that the core will follow the periphery into recession," he said. In Spain, likely to become the next country to be bailed out by the European Union, the pace of decline accelerated. The picture was similar in Italy. Flagging growth prospects for the eurozone's biggest economies will prompt the ECB to ease monetary policy more in the next few months and cut interest rates to a new record low of 0.5 percent, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. The 17-nation bloc's economy almost certainly slipped back into recession last quarter and may have to wait until 2014 before it recovers from its decline this year, with only feeble growth expected next year. Europe is expected to remain the biggest drag on the world economy next year as its sovereign debt crisis rumbles on. Last month the eurozone sank further into decline as output of the manufacturing and services sectors combined dropped at the fastest rate since June 2009.