Germany helped the euro area avoid its second recession in three years as growth in the region's largest economy offset contractions in peripheral countries.

Gross domestic product in the 17-nation euro region stagnated in the latest quarter compared with the prior three months, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said today. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 0.2 percent contraction. The German economy expanded 0.5 percent, compared with the 0.1 percent median estimate by economists in a separate survey.

Germany's expansion is helping counter declining GDP in the euro area's peripheral economies amid a deepening debt crisis. European finance ministers meeting in Brussels are pondering the prospect of Greece exiting the currency union, while voters from France to Greece rejected austerity plans by punishing administrations at the ballot box.