German economy could shrink over five percent: bank

BERLIN - Germany’s economy could contract by more than 5.0 percent this year as the world’s largest exporter is battered by the global financial crisis, the country’s biggest bank warned Monday.

By (AFP)

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Published: Mon 23 Feb 2009, 3:51 PM

Last updated: Thu 2 Apr 2015, 3:56 AM

Deutsche Bank’s chief economist Norbert Walter told mass circulation Bild: ‘The German economy will shrink by five percent in 2009 only if we have a real upswing in the summer.’

‘It cannot be ruled out that this upswing will not come. Therefore, a worse result than this (five-percent contraction) can no longer be excluded,’ he was quoted as saying.

Walter called for a global response under the leadership of US President Barack Obama to haul the world out of its economic slump.

The German government has said that Europe’s biggest economy will shrink by between two and two-and-a-half percent this year, which would be the country’s worst recession in six decades.


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