Germany 2009 recession worst since 1930s

Amid the gloom, however, employment held up much better-than-expected and the public deficit was much less than feared despite additional government spending to soften the blow from the sharpest global downturn since the 1930s.

Overall economic activity shrank for the first time in six years as exports fell 14.7 percent and business investment plunged by 20 percent, the Destatis national data service said in a statement.

This was the worst figure since the Great Depression when German output contracted by more than seven percent in 1931-32, it added.

UniCredit economist Andreas Rees summed up 2009 as "the annus horribilis for the German economy."

Destatis president Roderich Egeler told journalists in Wiesbaden, western Germany, that "the economic slump occured essentially during the winter period of late 2008 and early 2009."

Read more...