Europe’s largest economy is Germany. The first three months of this year shows Germany beating forecasts of no growth by expanding 0.2%. Analysts were predicting that the German’s GDP would be stale coming into the beginning of 2010. But the Germans proved them wrong.

The fourth quarter numbers were also revised to show 0.2% of growth. This means the gross domestic product contraction has been cut to 4.9%. After four quarters of shrinkage, in 2009 Germany started coming out of the recession.

Germany had a harsh winter which prevented construction activities. So despite this, the economy is gaining ground. The drivers for the growth was investments and exports in the industrial sector.

After going into a recession in ‘08 because of exports drying up among a worldwide recession, export recovery is slowing coming back. Germany had been the world’s largest exporter but lost to China in 2009.

In April, exports jumped to 10.7% comparing to March and was up almost a quarter from last year. The government is stating growth should be 1.4% for 2010.

Image Credit: