German growth hits speed bump in third quarter

German economic growth slowed __more sharply than expected in the third quarter, official data showed Tuesday, but analysts see Europe's largest economy bouncing back at year's end.

Gross domestic product grew by 0.2 percent compared with the second quarter, adjusting for price, seasonal and calendar effects, the federal statistics office Destatis said in provisional figures.

Analysts surveyed by Factset had forecast growth of 0.3 percent between July and September, after the economy expanded by 0.4 percent in the second quarter and 0.7 in the first.

Slower third-quarter growth "points towards a bump in the road but not to a turning towards general and longer lasting weakness," Unicredit economist Andreas Rees wrote.