Germany's economic growth slowed slightly in the third quarter, official statistics published today showed, an expected deceleration after a record second quarter for Europe's top economy.
Gross domestic product grew by 0.7% between July and September, Germany's statistics office said. This followed a jump of 2.3% in the second quarter of the year, the best performance for 20 years.
The 0.7% growth was slightly lower than forecasts by analysts, who had expected growth of 0.8%.
'The upturn of the German economy continued, though at a slightly slower pace, as had been expected considering the record result of the second quarter,' the statistics office said.
When compared with a year earlier, at a time of economic crisis, German GDP rose by an impressive 3.9%. Significantly, the growth was broad-based, with both domestic and foreign demand making a positive contribution to the GDP figures.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has come under fire both from European partners and around the globe for not doing enough to boost domestic demand and relying too heavily on Germany's world-class export machine.
The global downturn hit Germany, the world's second-biggest exporter after China, especially hard as demand for its goods dried up. In 2009, it suffered the worst recession in 60 years with GDP contracting 4.7%.
However, as the rest of the world has recovered and started buying German products again, the economy has rebounded powerfully.
French growth in line with forecasts
France's economy grew 0.4% percent in the third quarter of 2010, in line with government expectations, the official INSEE statistics office said today.
This was after growth of 0.7% registered in the second quarter, it said. Household consumption grew by 0.6% in the third quarter from the previous 0.3%, but investment slowed to 0.5% from 0.95, the office said.
After a rise of 0.2% in the first quarter, growth could reach 1.6% for the whole year, the French statistics office said.
