Germany’s economic growth slowed slightly in the third quarter, official statistics published on Friday showed, an expected deceleration after a record second quarter for Europe’s top economy.

Gross domestic product grew by 0.7 per cent between July and September, Germany’s statistics office said, after a jump of 2.3 per cent in the second quarter of the year, the best performance for 20 years.

The 0.7 per cent growth was slightly lower than forecasts by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, who had expected growth of 0.8 per cent. But it was significantly higher than the 0.4 per cent delivered by France and consolidated hopes that Germany can pull up the eurozone economy, pressured by the bond market difficulties of its periphery nations.

Carsten Brzeski, from ING bank, said: “This year can still go down in the annals as the best growth year since German reunification” in 1990.

“Third quarter growth demonstrates that the German recovery is much more than a simple statistical quirk: the German economy is a good way towards a self-sustained recovery,” added the analyst.