BERLIN: A strong first quarter for Germany has lifted some of the gloom from a weak second half to 2018, but fears linger for the future of its manufacturing-led model, analysts said on Tuesday.

Europe’s powerhouse narrowly avoided recession late last year, with zero growth between October and December following a decline of 0.2 per cent in the preceding quarter.

But the economy recovered again in the first three months of this year, with gross domestic product expanding by 0.4pc on a quarter-on-quarter basis, data published by the federal statistics authority, Destatis, showed on Tuesday.

ING bank economist Carsten Brzeski said that “any panic about the state of the eurozone’s largest economy was overdone”.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2019