Exports, investment give German economy boost

FRANKFURT, Feb 14 (AFP): Growth of the German economy, Europe's biggest, picked up fractionally at the end of last year, propelled by buoyant exports and increased investment, official data showed today.
German gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.4 per cent in the period from October to December.
That was slightly faster than analysts' expectations, and was up from growth of 0.3 per cent in the preceding three months, the federal statistics office Destatis said.
"Positive impulses came primarily from net foreign trade," Destatis explained.
"According to preliminary calculations, exports grew much more strongly than imports. By contrast, the signals from domestic demand were more mixed," the statisticians said.
Public spending stagnated and consumer spending was down slightly, but positive developments were seen in investment.
Investment in both construction and equipment was up strongly, but companies also sharply reduced their inventories "and that put the brakes on growth," Destatis said.
Taking 2013 as a whole, Destatis confirmed a preliminary estimate from last month which showed that German growth slowed to just 0.4 per cent last year, the slowest growth for four years.
Analysts were cheered by the better-than-expected data.
The numbers were "a positive surprise," said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski, asking whether the German economy was "finally picking up."
"Recent monthly data had painted a rather confusing picture with strong soft data but disappointing hard data," the expert said.
"Today's growth outcome is actually better than monthly hard data had suggested.