As the recession bites 78 percent of Germany's small and medium-sized companies said they are in favour of protectionist measures, according to a new study released Sunday.

A year ago the percentage stood at 43 percent, the global accounting firm Ernst & Young which conducted the study said.

Ninety-two percent also said greater public investment "would noticeably strengthen the country's small- and medium-sized companies," against 69 percent a year earlier.

Roughly half of the 3,000 companies that participated in the study said the global financial crisis had directly affected their businesses, mainly from the slump in demand.

The study also found that one in seven small- and medium-sized German companies were finding it more difficult to get credit from banks.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, entered a recession in the third quarter of 2008, and the latest official data showed that 8.3 percent of the German workforce were out of work in January, up from 7.4 percent in December.

In a bid to stave off the global economic crisis Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has put together a 50-billion-euro (65-billion-dollar) stimulus package, the largest in modern German history.

The raft of measures -- the second such plan in a matter of months -- included a huge increase in infrastructure spending as well as sweeping tax cuts. Merkel wants it to pass both houses of parliament by the end of this month.