The Recession in Germany will be Deeper than Expected

There were positive signs at the start of the year that Germany may have weathered the energy crisis better than expected.

Germany's recession this year will be worse than previously feared, leading economic institutes have warned, as high inflation and industrial slowdown hit Europe's leading economy hard.

The economy will shrink by 0.6 percent in 2023, the institutes said in their latest joint forecast.

The last joint economic forecast, published in April, projected growth of 0.3 percent in 2023. Since then, however, some of the participating institutes have forecast a separate contraction in the economy that year, although their forecasts were less gloomy than the last joint forecast.

Earlier this month, the European Commission said it expected the German economy to contract by 0.4% this year, compared with a previous forecast of 0.2% growth.