© EPA-EFE/ANDREAS GORA / POOLThe German government, which so far had projected a growth of 1.3% for the course of this year, will reduce this to 0.2%, Economy Minister Habeck (Greens) told the crafts trade fair. This was "dramatically bad," he added.
Last year, Germany posted the worst performance across all major global economies, with a GDP contraction of 0.3%, exacerbating concerns over the deteriorating health of Europe's largest economy.
While politicians and business leaders had hoped 2024 would bring a more positive outlook - with the German government until recently projecting a growth rate of 1.3% over the course of this year - Habeck's remarks, reported by FAZ earlier on Wednesday, point to a much bleaker scenario.
The government is now set to slash its forecast to 0.2%, Habeck said - conveying a "dramatically bad" situation.
The growth estimate revision of Europe's industrial and exports engine casts a gloomy shadow on the European Commission's own economic forecast for the wider bloc due on Thursday (15 February), as the EU's overall economy traditionally tends to track the German trajectory due to the close trade links most European countries hold with the industrial powerhouse.
Comment: Germany is considered the 'powerhouse', and so the outlook for much of the rest of Europe will be equally dire, more so in the coming years considering it just used 50 billion Euros of taxpayers money to fund the failing proxy war in Ukraine, and many EU nations are now backing the US-Israel genocide in Gaza, and the US-UK destabilisation campaign in the Middle East.
Germany in particular appears to have seen its recent history as a trial run, rather than a heinous mistake not to be repeated: