Berlin  - German economic growth slowed to between 1.3-1.4 per cent in 2008, heralding a sharp slowdown this year, analysts expect data to be released on Wednesday to show.

After turning in a solid 2.5-per-cent growth rate in 2007, Germany slumped into a recession in the third quarter last year. A slew of data last week showed the slowdown in Europe's biggest economy rapidly gaining momentum as the year came to an close.

Economics expect the gross domestic product GDP for the final quarter to dip as much as 2 per cent from the previous quarter.

In the first quarter the GDP rose a strong 1.4 per cent, only to decline by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter and 0.5 per cent in the third quarter.

Analysts fear that German economy could contract as much as 2.2 per cent this year as the nation sinks into its worse economic downturn since the end of World War II.

Last week the nation's statistics office said German exports, which are a key pillar of the country's GDP, plunged by a dramatic 10.6 per cent in November.

As the world's leading export nation, Germany appears particularly vulnerable in the face of a rapidly slumping world economy.

At the same time, Ministry of Economics and Technology said both factory orders and industrial production fell more than expected in November.

The release of the latest German GDP figure comes just a day before the European Central Bank is expected to deliver another cut in interest rates to help spur economic growth in the 16-member eurozone.

Meanwhile, the German Labour Office said unemployment rose for the first time in nearly three years in December, pushing the seasonally adjusted jobless rate up to 7.6 per cent from 7.5 per cent in November.

However, German retail sales posted a bigger-than-forecast 0.7-per-cent rise in November, the nation's statistics office said, as falling oil prices helped the country's consumers to defy the growing global economic gloom and spend in the run-up to Christmas.

Analysts had forecast a more modest 0.5 per cent month-on-month increase in seasonally adjusted retail sales during November. (dpa)