German economy more than doubles growth pace in Q1

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany more than doubled its economic growth rate in the first quarter of 2016 as higher state and household spending, as well as rising investment on construction and capital goods offset a drag from foreign trade, preliminary data showed on Friday.

The economy grew by 0.7 percent on the quarter between January and March after it expanded by 0.3 percent in the final three months of 2015, the Federal Statistics Office said.

That was higher than the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll for 0.6 percent growth.

Unadjusted data showed the economy expanded by 1.3 percent on the year in early 2016, missing the Reuters consensus forecast for 1.5 percent gowth.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Michael Nienaber)