|
With the European Union implementing a new motor vehicle
emissions certification system, German auto makers struggled to
gain regulatory clearance while production was also dampened by
big dealership discounts to clear stock before the new rules
came into effect.
Germany has been the engine of the euro zone's five-year growth
run and its recent wobbles have increased worries that growth
cycle may be coming to a premature end, before some countries
have had time to fully recover from the bloc's debt crisis less
than a decade ago.
"The economic upswing in Germany is still fundamentally intact,"
the Bundesbank said in a regular monthly economic report.
"Business climate improved noticeably in the third quarter,
according to the Ifo Institute, so a significant expansion of
economic output is expected for the current quarter," the bank
added.
Still, third quarter growth figures, due to be published in
mid-November, are likely to be sluggish as retail sales were
modest and construction output pulled back from earlier highs,
exacerbating the hit to growth from a big drop in industrial
production.
The car industry's struggles continued until the end of the
quarter but other segments of industry fared better and the
backlog of industrial orders also remained high, the Bundesbank
added.
The German government recently cut its 2018 growth forecast to
1.8 percent from 2.3 percent and also lowered the 2019
projection to 1.8 percent from 2.1 percent, citing the impact of
global trade disputes, labor shortages and the auto sector’s
difficulties.
(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
[© 2018 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2018 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
 |
|
