German Economy Shrinks 3.8 Percent in Q1

The German economy contracted 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden said Friday.

That was the sharpest quarterly decline in nearly four decades and the fourth consecutive quarterly contraction to gross domestic product, Destatis said.

The German economy shrank 6.9 percent year on year in the first quarter, it said.

Falling export and investment caused the plunge in the first quarter, when only household and government final consumption expenditure grew slightly, Destatis said.

Some analysts said the data were dramatically worse than expected.

Source: CRIEnglish