By Maria Martinez
BERLIN (Reuters) -The German economy skirted a recession at the start of the year, growing modestly but more than expected thanks to investment in construction and exports.
The economy grew slightly in the first quarter, with gross domestic product rising 0.2% on the previous three-month period in adjusted terms, preliminary data from the statistics office showed on Tuesday.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.1% increase.
The statistics office also revised the data for the last quarter of last year to a 0.5% contraction, from a more modest slump of 0.3% that was previously reported.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez; editing by Matthias Williams)
