German economy expanded by 0.6% in 2019

Germany’s economy expanded by 0.6% in 2019, marking the tenth year of growth in a row, according to the latest figures released by the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) on Wednesday.

Despite a decade of economic growth, the growth rate last year is the weakest rate of growth since 2013.

The German economy slowed amid heightened global trade tensions and weak export growth — in price-adjusted terms, German exports of goods and services rose 0.9% on 2018.

According to Destatis, industrial production, excluding construction, dropped by 0.5%.

Growth last year was mainly driven by consumption expenditure. Household final consumption expenditure increased by a price-adjusted 1.6% on the previous year, while government final consumption expenditure by 2.5%.

“This means that the German economy grew for the tenth year in a row. This is the longest growth period since German reunification (in 1990),” statistics official Albert Braakmann was quoted by Reuters as saying.

“Without the domestic demand — this means private consumption, state spending and construction — the German economy would have entered a recession,” Scheuerle added.

ING bank economist Carsten Brzeski was quoted by news agency AFP: “Short-term stimulus is still not really needed”

“Instead, the surplus should be used to step up investment efforts in the well-known sectors: digitalization, infrastructure and education,” he added.