The German economy stalled in the final quarter of last year, narrowly escaping recession, as the fallout from global trade disputes and Brexit threatened to derail a decade-long expansion in Europe’s economic powerhouse.
The GDP of Europe’s biggest economy was unchanged for the quarter, the German Federal Statistics Office said yesterday.
A Reuters poll had forecast growth of 0.1 percent.
German companies are grappling with a cooling global economy and trade disputes triggered by US President Donald Trump’s policies. It also faces the risk that the UK would leave the EU next month without an agreement on the terms of its withdrawal.
“Germany got away with a black eye,” DekaBank economist Andreas Scheuerle said of the fourth-quarter numbers. “But the first quarter is not looking like it is going to be easy, either, as political uncertainties are weighing heavily on corporate confidence.”
With growth unchanged in the fourth quarter, the economy escaped recession — defined as two or more consecutive quarters of contraction — after it shrank by 0.2 percent in the third quarter.
Germany’s economy last year grew at its weakest rate in five years. Growth is forecast to shrink further to 1 percent this year and the country faces a budget shortfall of about 25 billion euros by 2023.
The fallout from the trade disputes and concern about Brexit are weighing on business confidence, which fell for the fifth consecutive month last month.
Morale is also being depressed by weaker demand for German goods and services in China, the eurozone and emerging markets.
Furthermore, the government is concerned that technological innovation and the acquisition of German industrial know-how by foreign — particularly Chinese — companies could erode the manufacturing base on which much of Germany’s wealth is built.
The German government might take stakes in key domestic companies to prevent foreign takeovers, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier said last week, adding that the shift in policy is needed to safeguard the country’s prosperity.
Presenting an unusually gloomy outlook for Europe’s biggest economy, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann late last month said that the economic slump would last longer than had been expected and that more bad news was coming.
With German growth stalling, the European Central Bank is likely put off plans to normalize monetary policy any further and it is more likely to provide further stimulus, economists said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”