Germany's economy grew by one percent in the first quarter of this year, the strongest quarterly growth in four years, the government said on Tuesday.

The federal statistics office Destatis confirmed a preliminary estimation published on May 12 that the third largest world economy saw its best performance since early 2001.

Destatis said the first-quarter growth was driven mainly by exports, which grew by 2.9 percent in the January-March period.

Meanwhile, both state and consumer spending contracted by 0.2 percent in the period while domestic demand fell by 0.6 percent.

The financial, renting and business services showed a year-on-year rise of 1.7 percent, while trade and transport grew by 0.7 percent in the three months.

Source: Xinhua