Europe’s largest economy is faltering precariously. Statistics from the Ministry of Economy show a fall of 3.4 percent in industrial production. Market analysts had predicted a decline of 1.3 percent.
Above all, it is about a decline in the automotive industry, which is so important to Germany, with manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
“Even more bad news for German industry,” writes Elmar Völker, analyst at the bank LBBW in a market commentary, stressing that the risk of a recession “is by no means averted.”
Recession usually refers to two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth and is seen as a mild recession. In the first quarter, German GDP growth was unchanged and the German government has a forecast for the full year 2023 of growth of 0.4 percent.