BERLIN, May 15 - A top economic adviser to the German government played down talk of recession on Thursday despite the surprise GDP contraction in the first quarter of 2003. "I'm against talking up recession dangers now," Wolfgang Wiegard, chairman of the "five wise men" independent panel of economic advisers to the German government, told . "But the situation is unsatisfactory and the outlook is bleak. Given this starting position we can be happy if we reach 0.5 percent growth in 2003." Germany's gross domestic product shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter of 2003 from the final quarter of 2002, confounding forecasts of a slight rise.
After a very slight contraction in the final quarter of last year, the latest figure indicates Europe's largest economy is near a technical recession -- defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.//