BERLIN, Nov 20 - Germany's gross domestic product expanded 0.2 percent in the third quarter, the Federal Statistics Office confirmed on Thursday, as stronger exports outweighed the biggest drop in domestic demand in more than a decade. Exports increased by 3.2 percent from the second quarter, the biggest increase since a 5.1 percent gain in the final quarter of 2000, as imports dropped 1.9 percent, the office said. Domestic demand shrank 1.6 percent, the largest decline since one of the same size in the first quarter of 1993. Net trade added 1.8 percentage points to growth, while domestic demand sliced off 1.6 points, the office said. "Exports are the ray of hope," said Gerd Hassel, an economist at ING BHF-Bank. "The German economy is again getting a boost from foreign demand," he said. "This is also a reason to be hopeful about how domestic demand develops." Europe's biggest economy had been in recession since the final quarter of last year. It is still in danger of posting its first full year of contraction since 1993, economists have said. The statistics office said last week that the economy would need to grow by 0.6 percent in the final quarter from the previous three-month period to avoid full-year contraction.//www..com