The eurozone may have been unter attack, but the real economy has performed better than widely forecast. But the harsh winter weather is now undoing the recovery. FT Deutschland reports that German retailers no longer hope to achieve a record Christmas sale as they did a few weeks ago. A lot of customers have stayed at home, as the country's rail transportation system has totally collapsed. The best the retailers now hope for is to achieve a similarly good result, in nominal terms, as in 2006. The problem is also similar in other European countries - except curiously, France, where business has been buoyant. The outlook in Spain is bleak. The FT quotes a study by Deloitte, according to which Christmas spending in Spain fell from €951 per household to €655 this season.

One factor behind the winter chaos are savings decision by governments, railroad and airport operators, who are simply not equipped to deal with heavy amounts of snow.