German corporate bankruptcies rose in 2009 for the first time in six years, with filings up 15.5 percent on the year in December in the wake of recession, government data showed Tuesday.

The Federal Statistical Office said 2,583 companies filed for bankruptcy protection in the last month of 2009.

The year-on-year increase compared with a smaller 6.9 percent rise in November, but was in line with big increases in the two previous months.

Corporate bankruptcies were up 11.6 percent for the whole of 2009 over the previous year, with a total of 32,687 bankruptcy filings registered.

That was the first time since 2003 that the number of companies going bust rose from the previous year, the statistical office said. Overall, bankruptcies still fell short of the 2003 total of 39,320.

Germany's economy _ Europe's biggest _ returned to modest growth last year after a sharp recession, but stagnated in the fourth quarter.

The head of Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, was optimistic Tuesday about the outlook, noting that a strengthening global economy is good news for German exporters.

"I firmly believe that the recovery process ... is essentially intact and that it will continue despite the slower pace of growth in the final quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2010," bank President Axel Weber said in a statement.

Weber said that "the German labor market continues to be in extremely robust shape."

Germany's unemployment rate stood at 8.7 percent in February. It has been kept in check over recent months by a government-backed program that allows companies to put workers on reduced hours in an effort to avoid layoffs.

The Bundesbank said its profit declined to euro4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) last year from euro6.3 billion in 2008 as low eurozone interest rates pushed down interest income.