Germany Hit by ‘Pronounced Slowdown’
The Chief Economist at the Deutsche Bank - Germany’s national bank - said in an interview published Sunday that Germany’s economy is undergoing a “pronounced slowdown.”
Recession could be averted, Norbert Walter added, with “happy accidents” such as an improved economic outlook in the United States and a fall in energy and food prices.
“But I don’t consider any of these eventualities plausible,” Walter said. “We are in a period of a pronounced slowdown (that will probably) last until 2010.”
A “pronounced slowdown” seems to be the new economic understatement then. Walter seemingly considers a recession to be imminent, unless some miracle happens. Realists would then be wise to assume that a recession will most certainly come and cause economic misery in the European Union’s biggest and most important economy.
Germany’s economy is the engine of the economy of the EU. If this country’s economy stumbles into a recession, so will most other European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria.
Reforming their employment situation would solve many long term negative outlooks on their and other European economies. If you make it difficult to fire someone, you make it difficult to hire someone.