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German economy grew by a robust 0.7% in the last quarter of 2014, well above forecasts, while France continued to wallow, official data showed on Friday.
The revival of Europe's largest economy followed stagnation over the previous two quarters. It had been expected to expand by 0.3%.
Domestic demand lifted Germany out of its mid-year lull and allowed it to achieve 2014 growth of 1.6%. The Statistics Office said a slow summer had been overcome with household spending picking up significantly.
"This is a thunderbolt. Economic recovery in Germany started much earlier than expected. Some spoke of possible recession after the summer but instead Germany rebounded. The fact that the growth comes mainly from the domestic economy gives strong grounds for optimism," said economist Andreas Rees at Unicredit.
France could not keep pace, growing by just 0.1%, meaning the euro zone's second largest economy advanced by just 0.4% across the whole of 2014.
"It's obviously still too weak, but the conditions are ripe to permit a cleaner start of activity in 2015," said Finance Minister Michel Sapin, who added that business leaders were already beginning to increase investment.
On Monday, France's central bank predicted first quarter growth of 0.4%, led by a rise in industrial production and a slight improvement in services activity.
The euro zone as a whole is predicted to show anaemic growth of 0.2% in the final three months of the year although Germany's performance could lift that. That figure is due at 1000 GMT.
With Greece's place in the euro zone uncertain once more, there is plenty of turbulence for the currency bloc to contend with.
But a halving of the price of oil and the prospect of the European Central Bank buying more than 1 trillion euros of euro zone government bonds with new money over the next 18 months should start to spur growth.
Latest data suggest a slightly more buoyant start to the year. The January purchasing managers survey produced the best showing for euro zone firms enjoyed their best month since mid-2014 and pointed to first quarter growth of 0.3%.
Spain released its Q4 figures two weeks ago and boasted quarterly growth of 0.7%, its highest pace in seven years.
Economy Minister Luis de Guindos told Reuters last week that forecasts for 2015 could soon be lifted as high as three%, putting Spain at the top of the euro zone growth league.
The Dutch economy grew 0.5% in the fourth quarter, following 0.2% in Q3.
Greek data are due later and are forecast to post growth of 2.2% year-on-year, showing the bailed out country has put a long and savage recession behind it, at least for now.
But if it fails to agree a deal with its euro zone peers to keep the country funded while it remains shut out of the markets, all bets will be off.
