ZEW economist says no sign of sharp German recession

MANNHEIM, Germany Nov 13 (Reuters) - Europe's biggest economy is continuing to weaken but there is no sign that it is heading into a sharp recession, an economist at Germany's ZEW institute said on Tuesday.

"This is not an indication of a recession, it's more or less a sign that the German economy is continuing to weaken over the next six months but not in the sense of a sharp recession as we see in other European countries," said ZEW economist Christian Dick.

Fellow ZEW economist Marcus Kappler said Germany could not decouple itself from slowdowns in other big euro zone states but added that domestic demand would help shield the German economy.

Earlier, ZEW's index for analyst and investor sentiment showed an unexpected fall for November.