Official figures have shown that the German economy has fallen into recession. The country's statistics service Destatis said Europe's biggest economy contracted 0.5% in the third quarter of 2008, a worse performance than expected.
This followed a contraction of 0.4% in the second quarter. The technical definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
On Wednesday, a panel of top economists warned that growth would come to a halt next year and blasted German government plans plans to bolster the economy through tax breaks and state investment.
The German government recently cut its forecast for economic growth to 0.2% in 2009 as the financial crisis continues to send shock waves around the world.
The world's leading exporter has been hit by weakening activity in its major markets while domestic consumption has remained at low levels.
