Robust foreign trade and firmer investment will help keep Germany's recovery intact though the pace of growth will likely slow from levels seen last year, the Finance Ministry said on Friday. Germany emerged from its deepest post-war recession in the second quarter of last year, expanding 0.4 percent, and grew by 0.7 percent in the third quarter.

But the Federal Statistics Office has said the economy stagnated in the fourth quarter. "The current economic data and the forward-looking economic indicators point to the recovery in Germany continuing," the Finance Ministry said in its January monthly report.

"The pace of the economic recovery should, however, ease compared to the summer half year of 2009," it added. The 'summer half year' is generally taken to mean the second and third quarters. Despite the recovery, the ministry noted that production capacity was not being fully used and that a lot of indicators remained at a low level.

Copyright Reuters, 2010