German economy feared to have stalled

Germany's economy slipped into reverse in the last quarter of 2011 in spite of showing strong overall growth for the year of 3 per cent, the country's Federal Statistics Office said today.

The country's annual growth rate was achieved in spite of the financial crisis in Europe which has other economies such as Greece, Spain and Italy struggling with huge debts and slumping output.

"The German economy again grew robustly in 2011," the German statistics office, Destatis, said in a statement.

In 2010, the German economy grew by 3.7 per cent after a painful contraction of 5.1 per cent in 2009, which was by far its worst showing since World War II.

While the 2011 growth figure was as expected by analysts, the statistics office also said that the German economy likely contracted by 0.25 per cent in the last quarter of 2011. The exact figure for fourth quarter growth is due only in mid-February and could be revised.

The chief economist for Commerzbank, Joerg Kraemer, expressed little surprise regarding the slowdown and told German news agency dapd he expected the German economy to shrink in the first quarter of 2012 as well.

Looking ahead, economic indicators also suggest 2012 will be a tougher year.

"While the German economy grew very strongly in the last two years, this year's growth will be much lower, especially because of the crisis in the eurozone," Ferdinand Fichtner, the head of the DIW economic institute, said in a statement.

Germany's 2011 growth puts it in a small group of strongly performing eurozone countries, along with Finland, Austria, Slovakia, and Luxembourg. France should see more moderate growth of around 1.7 for the year, according to the International Monetary Fund, while output stagnates amid high unemployment in Spain and Italy, the recent focus of the debt crisis.

Greece and Portugal, bailed out to avoid default, remain in deep recessions.

Germany should outperform the United States, which announces 2011 GDP on January 27. The IMF estimates the US economy grew 1.6 per cent over the year. The figure remains far short of emerging economies such as China, estimated at 9.5 per cent, and India at 7.8 per cent.

Germany's strongest growth was seen in the first six months of the year, when consumer spending rose 1.5 per cent — the biggest increase in five years.

Exports were also strong, according to Destatis, growing 8.2 per cent compared with the year before. Imports rose 7.2 per cent.

Simon Junker, an expert with the DIW institute, warned that expectations for the economy in 2012 were damped by the eurozone crisis and that both exports and imports would slow down.

"Germany's strongly export-driven economy will not be able to elude the slowdown of the global economy," Junker said. "Especially German exports will suffer from the eurozone crisis."

However, the DIW said, there is reason to be optimistic if the eurozone governments "manage to quickly and believably contain the crisis."