Germany’s economic recovery went into reverse at the end of last year but the country still notched up 3 per cent growth in 2011 – twice as fast as in the US and the rest of the eurozone.

Highlighting the robustness of Europe’s largest economy – even as the eurozone debt crisis escalated – the Wiesbaden-based federal statistics office reported 2011 overall had seen only a modest slowdown from the 3.7 per cent growth seen in 2010, which was the fastest since the country’s reunification in 1990.

However, Wednesday’s figures did not dispel fears that even Germany was being hit by the eurozone crisis. The statistics office estimated German gross domestic product had fallen by about a quarter of a per cent in the fourth quarter. That increased the chances of German falling into recession – defined as two quarters of contracting activity.