Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, posted record second-quarter economic growth of 2.2% from the previous three-month period, provisional figures released this morning by the national statistics office showed.
Business activity in Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, thundered ahead owing to sustained growth in exports that allowed the Destatis office to also revise first quarter growth higher to 0.5%. It had initially been estimated at 0.2%.
'Reunified Germany has never seen such quarterly growth before,' a Destatis statement said in reference to the second-quarter figure.
On an annual basis, the economy grew by 4.1% in the quarter it added, an eye-watering figure for western Europe. Analysts had forecast a quarterly rise of 1.4% and an annualised gain of 2.6%.
The record figure is even more notable as fears grow that the US and now China, the Asian powerhouse, are showing distinct signs of slowing, raising questions about the overall global recovery.
While Germany normally relies on exports to underpin growth - it is the second biggest exporter worldwide after China - household and government final consumption expenditure contributed to GDP (gross domestic product) growth, too,' Destatis said.
French growth also gathers pace
France's economy grew by 0.6% in the second quarter, compared with 0.2% in the first three months of the year, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said today.
Speaking on Europe 1 radio, Lagarde also said 35,000 jobs had been created in the second quarter, but indicated that a forecast of 2.5% growth in 2011 would remain unchanged.
France - Europe's biggest economy after Germany - experienced a recession last year when the economy contracted by 2.5%. President Nicolas Sarkozy's government is expecting growth of 1.4% for the whole of this year.
Meanwhile, Spain's economy grew 0.2% in the second quarter, adding to 0.1% growth in the preceding three-months, estimates from the national statistics institute INE today show.
On a year-on-year basis, Spanish GDP retreated by 0.2%. The provisional figures were in line with estimates published last week by the Bank of Spain.
For all of 2010, the government expects the economy to contract by 0.3%, to be followed by 1.3% growth in 2011.
Spain came out of recession in the first quarter, posting 0.1% growth in gross domestic product compared to the last quarter of 2009.
And the Netherlands' gross domestic product grew by 0.9% in the second quarter, compared to the first three months of 2010, preliminary data from the CBS statistics agency today showed. On an annual basis, Dutch GDP was up 2.1%.
