German economy averted recession in third quarter: ministry

The German economy dodged a technical recession in the third quarter, with private consumption and trade supporting modest growth, a senior official in the economy ministry said on Thursday, a day before quarterly GDP data are published.
"We are not expecting a recession. We don't anticipate a contraction in the third quarter," Jeromin Zettelmeyer, the head of the economic policy section at the ministry told Reuters.
"Private consumption remains supportive and foreign trade should also make a small positive contribution."
The German economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of the year and some economists are expecting another negative number in the July-September period, a result which would put Europe's largest economy into a technical recession.
Economists polled by Reuters are expecting quarter-on-quarter growth of 0.1 percent in the third quarter.