The German economy has officially moved into recession after recording two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth.

Europe's largest economy shrank by 0.5% in the third quarter of 2008 following a 0.4% drop in the second period.

"A negative effect on gross domestic product came from foreign trade, with a strong increase in imports and weakening exports," the Federal Statistics Office said.

The UK is expected to follow Germany into recession when the next set of quarterly results is released by the Office for National Statistics.

The OECD has forecast a fall of 0.5% in the euro-zone in 2009 and a drop of 0.9% in the US economy.