The German government is to reassess its gross domestic product growth (GDP) forecast for 2010 after an unexpectedly strong upswing in the second quarter, DPA quoted the Finance Ministry's sources in Berlin as saying on Friday. "With regard to the growth expectations for the whole year 2010, and in view of the current data and general conditions in the economy, there's a significant need for revision," the ministry's monthly report said. The government had been projecting 1.4 per cent growth for 2010, a figure now likely to be raised when it presents its new estimate in October, in view of the 2.2 per cent second-quarter growth on the back of positive export data. Europe's largest economy shrank in 2009, in the midst of a global recession by just under 5 per cent. Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, raised its growth forecast for 2010 to 3 per cent on Thursday. Bank economists said Germany had now clawed back more than half of the output that it lost through the world economic crisis. On Friday in further sign of recovery, figures released by ZVEI, the electronics industry body, said that exports for that sector had now exceeded the pre-recession level. With a volume of 12.6 billion euros (16 billion dollars) in June, exports of electronics and electrical goods had exceeded the June level in the pre-crisis 2008, ZVEI Chief Economist Andreas Gontermann said. Germany's economy is highly export oriented, with automobiles, machinery and electronics accounting playing leading roles. "The most powerful impetus for the electronic export industry in June came, again, from Latin America and South East Asia," Gontermann said. In the first half year of 2010 export growth to Brasil rose 56 per cent for the sector, to China 50 per cent, the statement said. The Finance Ministry, however said second-half growth would likely not be as strong as in the first half of 2010.
