German economy shrinks most since 2009 financial crisis

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's economy shrank in the fourth quarter more than at any time since the height of the 2009 financial crisis and may have underperformed the wider euro zone for the first time since then, preliminary data showed on Thursday.

Economists, however, said Europe's largest economy, which usually serves as a growth engine for the currency bloc, had turned a corner at the start of 2013 and would not fall into recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.