Germany has entered recession after its GDP dropped 0.2 per cent in the first quarter this year over the last quarter of 2002, the federal statistics office said today.
The GDP in the euro zone's biggest economy already shrank 0.03 per cent in the last quarter of 2002 compared to the third quarter.
Technically, recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
The first quarter's negative growth came as a surprise to most analysts and economic experts who had expected a slight upswing.
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The drop is due to a first-quarter rise in imports, which clearly exceeded exports, the statistics office said.
Germany's last, brief recession was at the end of 2001.
AFP