Economic growth in Ireland shrank by 0.6 percent, making its third successive quarter of contraction, and it’s official re-entrance into recession, Central Statistics Office reports.

The island nation’s gross domestic product contracted by 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted rate for a third successive quarter, meaning the economy is back in recession for the first time since 2009, the data shows.

Similarly, the statistics office has revised its GDP contraction in Q3 2012 to 1.0 percent, down from the 0.4 figure delivered three months ago, and five times the number originally forecast last winter. 

Similarly, the statistics office has revised its GDP contraction in Q3 2012 to 1.0 percent, down from the 0.4 figure delivered three months ago, and five times the number originally forecast last winter.  

Overall, the economy grew by 0.2 percent in 2012, missing the 0.9 predicted by economists.

Ireland lost out big on capital investment, which decreased by 19.8 percent from the previous quarter.

Gross national product performed better, as preliminary estimates for first quarter of 2013 increased by 2.9 percent, seasonally adjusted.

The recently bailed out euro member’s recovery from the financial crisis has been slow, and today’s data indicates it may be slower than originally anticipated. Ireland has one of the highest budget deficits, and will continue to cut spending and increase taxes in austerity measures.

The budget deficit is astronomical largely due to the burden inflicted by the failure of six banks and recapitalization of the main three - Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and Anglo Irish Bank. The total cost of the bailout is nearing 64 billion euros, of which 40 percent was paid by taxpayer contributions.

Prime Minister Enda Kenny is hoping to wrap up her country’s three-year international bailout plan by the end of 2013.

Economies across Europe are slipping back into recession. France’s economy shrank by 0.2 percent in Q1, and with the exception of Austria and Germany, all euro member states have been sluggish in their growth due to the general economic slowdown of the continent.

Bond market returns in Ireland had some investors optimistic that it was moving towards growth, and not contraction.

Bonds dropped Tuesday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi delivered a negative regional economic outlook, which he said will continue to necessitate monetary policy.

Overall the economy grew by just 0.2 percent last year, rather than the 0.9 percent initially thought, and the export-led recovery stalled in the second half of 2012 due to the slowdown in much of the rest of the eurozone. 

Mario Tama/Getty Images/AFP

 Russian stock market has opened on the positive territory on Tuesday, rebounding after Monday’s drop.

Investors however expect stocks to fall later in the day, as oil prices are declining and the international outlook remains negative on China liquidity crisis and concerns over Fed’s stimulus.

Russian stocks ended Monday with losses. The MICEX slipped 0.66 percent to the 1290.26 mark, while the RTS lost 1.02 percent to 1233.04. Equities of KAMAZ, Novatek, InterRAO, Rosneft and E.On Russia kept Russian market trade afloat with gains.

Major European stock markets also slumped Monday, reacting to worries over the Chinese liquidity crisis and the withdrawal of US Federal Reserve stimulus.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares slid 1.42 percent to 6,029.10, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 fell 1.24 percent to 7,692.45 points. In Paris the CAC 40 dropped 1.71 percent to 3,595.63 points.

Stocks in Spain and Italy also fell on rising Italian and Spanish state borrowing costs on the bond market.

US stocks ended Monday’s roller coaster trade with steep declines. Benchmark stock indices demonstrated a steep fall after the opening bell.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average had been down as much as 250 points on Monday ending down 139.84 points, or 0.9 percent, at 14,659.56.

The S&P 500 finished down 19.34 points, or 1.2 percent, at 1,573.09, with all of its 10 major sectors in negative terrain. The NASDAQ closed down 36.49 points, or 1.1 percent at 3,320.76, following an intraday low of 3,294.95 and a session high of 3,344.66.

Tuesday’s news from Europe will include the UK’s industry data on mortgage approvals, reflecting the demand in the housing sector. Bank of England policymakers are to testify on inflation and the economic outlook before the parliamentary treasury committee, Investing.com reports.

Also on Tuesday Italy is to hold an auction of 10-year government bonds.

The US is to publish official data on durable goods orders and closely watched reports on consumer confidence and new home sales later in the day.

Asian stocks were struck by worries over problems in the Chinese banking system. Mainland Chinese stocks fell sharply for a second straight day on Tuesday. Losses hit markets in other Asian regions as well.

The Shanghai Composite lost 3.8 percent to 1,888.69 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1.4 percent to 19,533.05. Japan's Nikkei 225 shed 1.6 percent to 12,848.96. South Korea's Kospi slid 1 percent to 1,780.81 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.5 percent to 4,645. Stocks in Taiwan and the Philippines also fell.

Brent oil is currently trading at $101.35, while WTI is up 0.17 percent, trading at $95.30.

Along with exposing widespread international surveillance, Edward Snowden has revealed how exactly the US is financing its military ambitions, according to Max Keiser.

RT: Surely not even you can make any kind of link between the Snowden saga and the US economy?

Max Keiser: The American economy runs on the confidence, confidence that the world accepts the US dollar as world reserve currency, confidence that the US bond market will remain the standard. And what we are seeing is a sell-off in a bond market and a sell-off in the stock market, because confidence in the US and its ability to maintain a global empire through interest rates and the Central Bank policy is crumbling before the world’s very eyes. What’s interesting is that Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen. Booz Allen allegedly along with a few other companies are the masterminds behind LIBOR market rigging, energy market rigging, FOREX market rigging. And this is really the fuel that keeps the American military empire going, because the American economy itself cannot support its military ambitions so they’ve resorted to market manipulation and the kind of intelligence that Edward Snowden is able to aggregate is key to manipulating markets in ways that make Booz Allen, allegedly, the channel for billions and billions of dollars into America’s military campaigns. And this is really about money, markets and manipulations. It’s not about security.  It’s not to do with anything that the White House says. Remember, the White House is a puppet of Wall Street, Booz Allen, the hedge funds and the financial interests of the corrupt bankers.        

RT: Can you also give us an idea of how some of those big companies like Google, or Facebook could actually benefit from this surveillance program PRISM? Is there financial a financial gain from them? 

MK: Absolutely, because all of the manipulation involves rigging the indexes. And the indexes are all data-sensitive. So, if you can manipulate the data, you can manipulate the indexes and you manipulate the markets. And if you have advanced knowledge of that inside information you can make billions of dollars of front-running, high-frequency trading, algorithmic trading. And, of course, all the banks on the Wall Street are in on this and all the banks in the UK. It’s very telling that the foreign minister of Ecuador said that, look “you are talking about us extraditing Edward Snowden, what about bringing back those bankers we asked you to bring back to Ecuador who we caught rigging and terrorizing our market?” What about the Icelandic bankers that have been asked by the government of Iceland to be extradited back to Iceland that are being held in the UK? What about these other instances where banking terrorists are being sheltered in the US and the UK? They’re not responding to extradition agreements. So this’s all about financial legerdemain, unfortunately, Americans don’t have enough money to fight their wars anymore so they have to resort to snooping, data-gathering, and market manipulation. 

RT: What about the diplomatic fallout? We’ve seen tensions between China and Washington but that of course leads to economic tension. Could that impact trade between the two? 

MK: I hope Russia, China, and Ecuador stand up to the financial terrorists in America and Britain. Stay the course. Don’t give in and don’t appease the financial terrorists on Wall Street. 

RT: But how could a small country like Ecuador stand up to a giant like America, where there is indeed trade between the two? 

MK: What Edward Snowden has proved is that if you live a principled life and stay true to your convictions then you can change the world. 

RT: Are we going to see financial fallout between China and the US? 

MK: Well China has got a fantastic card to play, one trillion US dollars that they can dump on the market anytime and jack interest rates up five or six points, which would throw the real estate market back into collapse. China is pulling the strings here and China has all the cards to play. America is the biggest debtor nation in the world. Look at the bond market today, it’s selling off spectacularly all over the world because confidence in the American hologram of finance is collapsing. They flipped the switch. They see that the emperor has clothes. They see that there’s no underlying economic activity to support the military and financial occupations emanating from the US. It’s game over!