IMF lowers growth expectations for Germany to 0.2 percent

The International Monetary Fund is only predicting mini-growth of 0.2 percent for Germany this year. This means that the economy is not doing worse in any major western industrial country.

According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the prospects for the German economy are continuing to deteriorate. The IMF in Washington forecast economic growth of 0.2 percent for the current year. In January, the IMF had expected an increase of 0.5 percent. The IMF is therefore forecasting the weakest growth of all leading Western G7 industrial countries for the Federal Republic of Germany this year.

1.3 percent expected next year

For 2025, however, the fund expects the German economy to grow by 1.3 percent again. Italy would be at the bottom of the G7 countries with just 0.7 percent.

But the IMF has also lowered the forecast for 2025 for the German economy by 0.3 percentage points compared to January. This is due to the persistently weak consumer sentiment, the monetary fund said.

Hurdles to investments

In the long term, the fund is particularly concerned about structural problems in Germany, such as the decline in the working population and the hurdles to investment. Leading economic research institutes are forecasting even worse growth of 0.1 percent for Germany this year. At 1.4 percent, their outlook for the coming year is slightly better than that of the monetary fund.