Berlin  - The German economy has emerged from its worst recession in 60 years with the nation's statistics office on Thursday reporting a 0.3-per-cent growth rate in the second quarter.

The surprise positive growth over first quarter results comes after Europe's biggest economy tumbled into recession during the second half of last year as the global economic slowdown triggered by a meltdown in the US mortgage market took hold.

"The recession appears to have ended," said Commerzbank chief economist Joerg Kraemer. "Economic data should strengthen substantially in the coming months."

However, the recession left its mark, with second quarter 2009 growth down 7.1 per cent from the same quarter in 2008, the statistics office reported.

Analysts had predicted the German economy would slump by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter before growth gradually gained traction during the second half of the year.

The German growth data came just one day after the US Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernacke expressed confidence that the downturn in the giant American economy had levelled off, raising the prospects of the nation returning to a positive growth rate in the coming months.

"The pace of economic contraction is slowing," European Central Bank (ECB) chief Jean-Claude Trichet told his regular monthly press conference following last Thursday's meeting of the ECB's 22-member rate-setting council.

"There are increasing signs that the global recession is bottoming out," Trichet said.

Germany's faster-than-expected rise out of recession is likely to help bolster the election chances of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative political bloc as it faces up to a national poll set for September 27.

The German statistics office pointed to private and public consumption, construction and net trade as helping to lead the nation out of recession.

Nonetheless, economists expect the German economy to shrink by at least 6 per cent on an annual basis this year after a dramatic fall in world trade hit the nation's key export machine.

But releasing the latest figures, the statistics office also revised up the nation's gross domestic product data for the first- quarter to show a 3.5-per-cent contraction instead of a previously estimated 3.8 per cent.

The release of the second-quarter German growth figures also came in the wake of a batch of surprisingly strong data from the nation with exports surging by 7 per cent in June and factory orders jumping by 4.5 per cent.

Analysts had forecast a more modest 0.7-per-cent rise in June industrial orders and had predicted a 1.8-per-cent gain in exports.

But underscoring the fragile state of the German economy, the nation's Ministry for Economics and Technology said last week industrial output in the country slipped by 0.1 per cent in June, when compared with the previous month.

However, May had posted an unexpectedly strong rise, of 4.3 per cent.

Economists have also expressed concern that German unemployment will rise in the coming months as the economic fallout from the world recession slowly catches up with the nation's labour market.

However, German unemployment rose less than expected in July, data released last month showed, adding to signs that the labour market in Europe's biggest economy had so far managed to hold up in the face of the global downturn.

The Nuremberg-based Federal Labour Office said seasonally unadjusted unemployment rose by 52,000 to 3.462 million, pushing the jobless rate up to 8.2 per cent from 8.1 per cent in June. (dpa)