2023-05-08 12:44:39
With our correspondent in Berlin, Pascal Thibaut
Analysts have the blues. Several of them, interviewed on Monday, May 8, believe that the improvement in the economic situation in Germany in the second half might deflate like a balloon. If recently the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted a very slight recession for 2023, the German government has revised its forecasts upwards.
The significant drop in industrial production in March of -3.4%, according to figures published Monday by the Federal Statistical Office, higher than expected, casts a chill. After the rally at the start of the year, the relapse is not encouraging. The automotive sector was severely affected with a drop of 6.5%, but also construction (4.6%) where the rise in rates and the increase in prices played a negative role. Energy-intensive industries are still suffering from price increases even though they have slowed down, their activity fell by 3.3%.
Bad news
industrial production rose once more at the start of the year, allowing Germany to avoid recession by a hair’s breadth, following shortages of supply of industrial components and inflation which affected the German economy.
But this bad index published this morning comes following two other bad results a few days ago for industrial orders, which fell sharply in March, by 10.7%, and exports.
The German government expects growth of 0.4% for the whole of 2023.
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