Germany economy powers ahead

Private consumption and trade fuelled a 1.5% expansion of the German economy in 2014, its best performance in three years but a result which masked weakness in the final three quarters of the year.

Private consumption added 0.6 percentage points to growth last year, preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Office showed.

Record high employment, rising wages, and moderate inflation are all boosting household spending in Germany. Foreign trade, a traditional driver of the economy which lost momentum in recent years, contributed 0.4 percentage points despite persistent sluggishness in Europe, Germany’s main export market, and crises in Ukraine and the Middle East.