Germany's leading five economic think tanks significantly lowered the biggest euro area economy's growth forecast for this year on Wednesday, citing cyclical and structural weakness amid sluggish economic activity. The German economy is now projected to grow just 0.1 percent this year, the institutes said in their spring report, which was much less than the 1.3 percent expansion forecast in the previous report. The growth projection for next year was lowered slightly to 1.4 percent from 1.5 percent. The level of economic activity will then be lower by more than 30 billion euros due to the current weak phase, the report said.
The five institutes participating in the report are ifo, DIW Berlin, IfW Kiel, IWH and RWI - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research. The Joint Economic Forecast is published twice a year on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
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May 22, 2026 14:46 ET Minutes of the latest Fed policy session was the highlight of the week along with survey data on the U.S. housing market. In Europe, survey data signaled the trends in the euro area private sector. Further, consumer price inflation data from the U.K. was in focus. In Asia, various economic indicators from China drew attention to the health of the economy.