Berlin  - Europe climbed out of recession in the third quarter with Germany and France helping to lead the region out its steepest economic decline in a generation, economists on Thursday said in anticipation of a European Union report.

The 16-member eurozone chalked up an 0.6-per-cent growth rate in the three months to the end of the September after it just missed out on emerging from recession during the second quarter, economists predict the European Union's statistics office Eurostat will say in data to be released Friday.

They predicted that the end of the recession in the eurozone will follow five quarters of contraction in the region's economy.

At the same time, Germany is expected to have grown by a solid 0.8 per cent in the third quarter after Europe's biggest economy moved more swiftly than expected out of recession to report a
0.3-per-cent expansion rate in the three months to the end of June.

However, some analysts believe that a recent raft of strong German economic data means that the third-quarter growth rate could come in even higher when details are released by Germany's statistics office.

French national data to be released Friday will also show that the eurozone's second-biggest economy grew at a healthy clip in the third quarter.

Analysts say Friday's data will show the French economy expanded by 0.6 per cent in the three months to the end of September after it also climbed surprisingly fast out of recession in the second quarter with a 0.3-per-cent growth rate.

But underscoring the fragile state of recovery, figures released Thursday showed Spain's economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the quarter and 4 per cent on the year after it took a hammering from the global economic crisis.

After showing the eurozone contracting by 4.8 per cent in the second quarter compared to the same quarter in 2008, Eurostat is predicted to show Friday that the eurozone economy slumped by
3.9 per cent in the latest quarter.

This should help to set the stage for the currency bloc to turn in a solid performance in the run-up to the end of the year.

Having shrunk by 2.8 per cent year on year in the second quarter, the French economy will slump by 1.9 per cent year on year in the three months to the end of September, economists predict.

In the meantime, a 0.8-per-cent quarter-on-quarter economic growth rate in Germany will translate into a 4.8-per-cent year-on-year contraction during the third quarter, economists predict.

The German economy slumped by 5.9-per-cent year on year in the second quarter.

Coinciding with Friday's release of the latest European growth data, the German government economic advisory panel, the so-called five wise men, was reported to predict in its latest report that the country's economy will grow at 1.6 per cent in 2010.

This will come after the German economy shrank by a dramatic 5 per cent this year.(dpa)