Europe’s growth engine is sputtering. Can Germany’s economy be revived?
CNN
Germany’s economy is in a slump, battling a slew of short-term problems and structural challenges. Will it remain stuck in the slow lane or can it be revived?
Trains canceled. Flights grounded. Highways blocked by angry farmers. The world’s fourth-largest economy has got off to a bumpy start this year. A strike by Lufthansa ground crew on Wednesday was just the latest industrial action to cause travel chaos in recent weeks, after train drivers walked off the job in January over a wage dispute and farmers blocked roads in protest against planned cuts to subsidies. Widespread walkouts in a country famed for strong legal protections for workers’ interests point to the depth of the malaise gripping Germany. Europe’s biggest economy shrank last year for the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. And the outlook isn’t much brighter: the International Monetary Fund predicts that Germany will be the slowest-growing major economy in 2024, eking out an increase of just 0.5%. More pessimistic forecasters see an outright decline in output for the second consecutive year, as the economy grapples with an extended spell of high energy prices, steep borrowing costs and weak demand for German goods at home and abroad. The lingering impact of the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine was highlighted Wednesday, with official data showing that Germany’s industrial production fell for the seventh consecutive month in December, its longest-ever slump.
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