Berlin, Aug 13 (DPA) The German economy has emerged from its worst recession in 60 years with the nation's statistics office reporting Thursday a 0.3 percent growth rate in the second quarter.

The surprise positive growth rate comes after Europe's biggest economy tumbled into recession during the second half of last year as the global economic slowdown triggered by a meltdown in the US mortgage market took hold.

Analysts had predicted Europe's biggest economy would slump by 0.2 percent in the second quarter before growth gradually gained traction during the second half of the year.

The statistics office pointed to private and public consumption, construction and net trade as helping to lead the nation out of recession.

However, compared to the same quarter in 2008 the statistics office said the German economy shrunk by 7.