The German economy, Europe's biggest and one of the fastest growing, lost some steam in the fourth quarter of 2010 owing to a cold snap, official figures showed today.
Activity expanded 0.4% in the three months to December, missing analyst forecasts for 0.5%. Cold weather and snow in December curtailed construction activity and economists said it would probably bounce back like it did last year.
For all of 2010, the Destatis office confirmed the economic expansion of 3.6% initially estimated in January, marking the strongest growth since east and west Germany were reunited in late 1990.
In the last three months of the year, activity expanded by a price-adjusted 4% from the same time in 2009, it added, slightly less than analyst forecasts for 4.1%.
'The upswing of the German economy continued at the end of 2010, though at a slightly slower pace,' a Destatis statement said. The economy grew 2.2% in the second quarter, slowing to 0.7% in the third.
German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said in a statement that 'these results show that the upward trend of the German economy is continuing,' and the government still expects growth of 2.3% this year.
Bruderle said Germany remained an economic locomotive but some euro zone partners complain that its exports come at their expense.
The value of German exports soared 18.5% last year, Destatis figures show, though imports grew by an even faster 20%.
ING senior economist Carsten Brzeski said the growth data 'showed that the economy has lost somewhat more steam than expected. The economic high-flyer of the summer has been brought back down to earth,' he noted.
'However, it is not a crash-landing but only a snow-driven stop-over,' he added.
German investor confidence little changed - ZEW
German investor confidence is little changed this month, edging up slightly to an indexed 15.7 points from 15.4 points in January, a closely followed ZEW survey showed today.
'The almost unaltered level of the indicator suggests that financial market experts have remained confident about the recovery of the German economy,' a statement said. Analysts had expected a bigger rise to 20 points.
ZEW noted that investors were encouraged that the degree of capacity utilisation at German companies has now surpassed the 10-year average.
The overall indicator, which measures financial market expectations, remained below its historical average of 26.7 points however.
A measure of how investors view the situation at present improved again meanwhile, gaining 2.4 points to 85.2 points, compared with analyst forecasts for a small decline.
