"We should return to growth in the first quarter and investment should resume its upward trend in the course of this year," said Lothar Hessler, an economist at HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt AG in Dusseldorf, who expects the economy to expand 0.6 percent in 2013. "The risks to this outlook are a possible re-eruption of the European crisis after elections in Italy, or continued uncertainty about the U.S. fiscal cliff."