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Shipyard workers in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania: Germany is lagging behind other countries when it comes to economic growth
Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa
According to experts, there will be no strong upswing in the global economy this year either.
At 2.6 percent, the global growth rate is likely to remain slightly below the 2.7 percent achieved last year, according to a survey by the Munich Institute for Economic Research (Ifo) and the Institute for Swiss Economic Policy.
According to experts, Germany will remain a “problem child” this year: those surveyed expect a growth rate of 0.6 percent for 2024.
The forecast for the Eurozone is 1.5 percent.
“The experts do expect a slight increase in economic output after the decline in 2023. But Germany is still lagging behind other countries,” said Ifo researcher Klaus Gründler.
Only for Great Britain (0.5 percent) and Sweden (0.4 percent) do respondents expect even lower growth.
The forecasts also remain rather cautious for Austria (0.9 percent) and Switzerland (1.3 percent).
Significantly stronger increases are expected for Spain (2.0 percent), Poland (2.8 percent), Ireland (2.8 percent) and Iceland (3.3 percent).
Globally, the study expects particularly high growth rates in Africa and Asia (3.6 percent each).
Long-term optimistic
The view of the medium and long term is somewhat more optimistic.
Global growth of 2.9 percent is predicted for 2025 and even 3.3 percent for 2027.
Experts also expect an increase in growth rates for Germany in the medium to long term, according to Ifo with 1.2 percent (2025) and 1.5 percent (2027).
However, this is a comparatively low level, emphasized the institute.
According to Ifo, more than 1,400 experts from 124 countries took part in the quarterly survey.
The survey of
Ifo partly coincides with the economic forecasts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Industrialized Nations Organization (OECD).
They expect global growth of 2.9 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively.
lph/AFP/Reuters