The National Statistics office of Germany has revealed that the country’s economy shrank by 5% in 2009 having grown by 1.3% in 2008.

Germany had emerged from its deepest recession in a generation to post a 0.4% economic expansion rate in the three months to the end of June 2009, amid predictions that the nation would start to recover in 2010.

The pickup in economic growth partially reflects the success of the €85bn emergency fiscal stimulus plan in shielding the German economy from recession.

The government office in Berlin has been predicted by some analysts to raise its 1.2% economic growth rate projection for 2010, when it unveils its next economic forecast.

A more positive forecast came from the countrys wholesale and export association (BGA) who said recently that the economy could grow between 2.5% and 3% in 2010 driven primarily by an increase in exports.