Economics

German Recovery Loses Steam 

  • Economists see contraction of 5.4% in 2020 as pandemic bites
  • This isn’t the time to ease virus containment, Scholz warns

Pedestrians and cyclists pass tram lines and retail outlets in Potsdam.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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Germany’s economy is losing steam but will do slightly better than government forecasts as fears grow over rising coronavirus infections, according to the country’ s five leading research institutes.

Gross domestic product will contract by 5.4% in 2020 and grow 4.7% next year, the experts predicted in their latest bi-annual outlook published Wednesday. In their spring report, they expected a contraction of 4.2% this year and growth of 5.8% in 2021.