BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s economy is expected to contract by 0.2 percent this year, an Economy Ministry spokesman said on Monday, confirming a report earlier in the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.
Official data will be released on Wednesday.
The government has so far expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 0.3% for this year.
If the new GDP forecast is confirmed, it will be the second consecutive year of contraction for Europe’s largest economy.
At the end of September, Germany’s leading economic institutes lowered their GDP forecasts for this year in their autumn projections, now saying they expected a contraction of 0.1%.
The German Ministry of Economy relies on the combined economic forecasts of the Ifo, DIW, IWH, IfW and RWI institutes to develop its own outlook.
“The autumn projections are not just about these three or four figures that have been mentioned,” said the spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy, referring to the figures published by the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
“It is an overall assessment of the economic situation, the economic outlook and also an idea of the underlying figures, which allows for a much more differentiated statement,” he added.
(Report by Friederike Heine, written by Maria Martinez, by Claude Chendjou, edited by Augustin Turpin)
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