Europe had "catastrophic" 4th quarter: EU Verheugen
The figures the European Commission will present next week will, unfortunately, show that we have slipped deeper into recession, Verheugen told German radio DeutschlandFunk.
The last quarter of 2008 was catastrophic in every respect.
It was unclear whether he was referring to the euro zone or the wider European economy. The European Commission is due to present its forecasts for the euro zone next week.
The EU's executive arm forecast on November 3, the euro zone economy would still grow 0.1 pecent in 2009 and 0.9 percent in 2010, but data since then has shown the forecasts were too optimistic and they will be revised on Monday.
The European Central bank last week cut rates by half a percentage point to 2 percent in response to the deepening euro zone recession, and governments have launched stimulus packages worth billions of euros to offset the crisis.
Reporting by Madeline Chambers; Editing by Sophie Hares
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