German Economic Recovery Gathers Pace

German gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by a price, calendar and seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter, faster than the 0.2 percent recorded in the preceding three months, the federal statistics office, Destatis, said in a statement. The second-quarter figure had been revised upwards from a previous estimate of zero growth.

Economic activity in Germany therefore topped analysts' expectations -- consensus forecasts had put third-quarter GDP growth at around 0.4 percent. On a 12 month basis, too, the German economy grew faster than expected, expanding by 1.3 percent in the July-September period, compared with forecasts of around 1 percent.

Domestic demand picks up, too

As in the past, growth was being driven primarily by overseas demand for German-made goods, the statisticians noted.

"The dynamism of foreign trade continued and had a positive effect -- thanks to the strong rise in exports -- on seasonally adjusted economic growth," Destatis said.

But domestic demand was also picking up, with "a sharp rise in investment also providing important impulses," it noted.

Destatis did not, however, provide a detailed breakdown of the different GDP components.