(AP-ANSA) - FRANKFURT - Germany's economic growth eased to 1.5 percent last year amid signs of a wider global slowdown, though the figures suggest Europe's largest economy at least escaped a feared recession in the fourth quarter. The figure announced Thursday by the government statistics agency was down from 2.2 percent in 2017 and is the weakest in five years. German output fell in the third quarter by 0.2 percent, but the dip was attributed to temporary factors such as bottlenecks registering cars under new emissions testing rules. Worsening economic data had raised fears that Germany may have turned another quarter of contraction in the fourth quarter, for which figures will be reported Feb. 14. Two straight quarters of falling output is one definition of a recession. But the statistics agency said there were "signs of a slight recovery" in the fourth quarter compared with the third. Agency official Tanja Mucha said that "we are not assuming a minus" in the fourth quarter. She cautioned that the figures are still preliminary. It was the ninth straight year of annual economic growth in Germany. (AP-ANSA).