Asian countries lead the world out of recession.

South Korea's economy grew at its fastest rate in 7-A' years in the third quarter, joining China and Singapore that have also reported faster growth in Asia in the September quarter.

In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Taiwan and New Zealand all pulled out of recession in the second quarter, although the recovery is expected to be gradual.

In Europe, Germany, France and Sweden have also announced a return to growth, however Britain's economy, by contrast, contracted in the third quarter.

Here is a timeline of when data showed economies emerging from recession to bounce back from the global financial crisis. Aug 11 - Singapore's economy leaps out of recession, expanding in the second quarter at its fastest rate in nearly 6 years, thanks to a surge in biomedical production and construction.

Aug 14 - Hong Kong pulls out of its deepest recession since the Asian financial crisis in the second quarter, growing by a much faster-than-expected 3.3 percent from the previous quarter.

Aug 16 - Israel's economy grows by a surprising annualised rate of 1 percent in the second quarter, official data shows, indicating it has moved out of a recession.

Aug 20 - Taiwan's economy grows for the first time in over a year in the second quarter on an annualised basis and officials say they expected rising demand from China to support a strong recovery.

Aug 24 - Thailand's economy emerges from its worst recession in 11 years in the second quarter, growing 2.3 percent from the first quarter as manufacturing rebounded, adding to signs of recovery in Asia's export-reliant economies.

Aug 25 - Germany exits recession in the second quarter despite a massive drop in inventories and restocking by firms could spur the economy to faster growth.

Sept 11 - Japan's economy grows 0.6 percent in the three months to June, less than preliminary figures had shown but confirming that the economy crawled out of recession after a full year of sharp contraction.

-- Brazil exits its short-lived recession as second-quarter numbers show stronger-than-expected 1.9 percent return to growth for Latin America's largest economy after only two quarters of contraction.

-- Sweden inches out of recession, after contracting for four quarters in a row. The economy ekes out a 0.2 percent gain in the second quarter from the previous quarter.

Sept 23 - New Zealand unexpectedly ends its longest recession on record. Gross Domestic Product rises a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent in the second quarter, compared with a revised 0.8 percent drop in the previous three months ending five straight quarters of contraction.

Sept 24 - The French economy, the euro zone's second-largest, emerges from recession, with unexpected economic growth in the second quarter after four consecutive quarters of contraction, confounding expectations for a 0.3 percent decline.

Oct 20 - Russia's economy puts recession behind it with third quarter growth, data shows, giving investors a further reason to chase the rouble to its strongest since December against the dollar.

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