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German economic recovery falters

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  • 12-02-2010 11:37am
    #1
    Amhran Nua
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭


    The recovery of the economic powerhouse of the European Union, Germany, appears to be tottering:
    Germany's recovery from recession faltered in the final quarter of 2009, according to preliminary figures released on Friday.

    The German economy failed to grow at all in the last three months of the year, with GDP unchanged compared with the previous quarter.

    Meanwhile France reported a 0.6% rise in GDP for the same three-month period - better than analysts expected.

    Figures also showed the eurozone economy grew 0.1% in the same period.

    Official first estimates showed that Spain, Italy and Greece remain in recession.

    The Greek economy contracted by 0.8%.

    ...

    The BBC's Tristana Moore in Berlin said the figures were "worse than expected".

    Analysts were surprised by the figures, with the majority expecting modest growth in the last three months of the year.

    "We no longer have a slump, but rather a very weak recovery," said Gerd Hassel, economist at BHF Bank. "The first quarter will probably turn out weak too."
    Would the first quarter also being weak not put Germany back into recession? Doesn't look like much of a recovery to me, and this is after massive government stimulus across the EU - when those funds run dry, the likelihood of a double dip grows stronger.


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    #2
    ei.sdraob
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,376 ✭✭✭ei.sdraob


    Amhran Nua wrote: »
    The recovery of the economic powerhouse of the European Union, Germany, appears to be tottering:

    Would the first quarter also being weak not put Germany back into recession? Doesn't look like much of a recovery to me, and this is after massive government stimulus across the EU - when those funds run dry, the likelihood of a double dip grows stronger.

    with Germany being weak, who will bailout Greece (and maybe us too at some stage) ....


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    #3
    Boskowski
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,361 ✭✭✭Boskowski


    ei.sdraob wrote: »
    with Germany being weak, who will bailout Greece (and maybe us too at some stage) ....

    We're all sitting on a giant house of cards it seems.

    Since the Bundesrepublik came into existence we didn't have a single budget where we actually took more money in than we spent. Not once.
    Which means that Germany is indebted by the staggering amount 2 billion by now.

    By the way "1 Billion" in the German language is th e equivalent of 1000 billion in the English language. What English speakers call a billion we call a "1 Milliarde == 1000 Million". Therefore "1 Billion == 1000 Milliarden".

    But anyway, that's the reality. So who's bailing who out, I don't know. Because the 'bailers' are as much in sh1t as the potential 'bailees'.

    And besides all that I would be vehemently against an Irish 'bailout'.

    Transfers across EU states are supposed to provide help with regards to structural deficits. That has already happened to quite some extent in case of Ireland.
    Transfers across EU states are not supposed to provide help in case of sheer greed and idiocy. That principle may be the flavour here (see NAMA) - but I doubt it very much that others are inclined to pick up the tabs for that little property scam of ours on the back of which we all find ourselves driving 5-series beamers but are unable to make more than the minimum payment on our 7 credit cards.

    Nobody should 'bail us out'. It would send all the wrong signals and quite frankly we don't deserve it anyway.

    Probably same goes for Greece too.


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    #4
    thebman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,012 ✭✭✭✭thebman


    I wouldn't call 0.2% worse than expected to be that large concern over a 3 month period when everybody seemed to have doubts about it at the time anyway.

    I imagine things like Toyotas recent problems will boost some German companies like the car manufacturers obviously in that example :D


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    #5
    gandalf
    Registered Users Posts: 26,458 ✭✭✭✭gandalf


    The thing is if Germany came out of recession properly the ECB would up interest rates which would be the final nail in the coffin for many hanging on by their finger nails here.


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    #6
    peasant
    Registered Users Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    Never mind the non-growing German GDP, it's actually a lot worse:
    BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- Germany's total tax revenue fell by 7.8% in January compared with last year, a German finance ministry spokesman said Friday.

    The comments confirm a report in Friday's Handelsblatt newspaper, which said that January's tax revenue fell three times as much as a group of tax experts has forecast for 2010 as a whole.

    The spokesman also confirmed that federal government tax revenue fell by an annual 11.7%.
    http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201002120402dowjonesdjonline000347&title=german-tax-revenue-in-january-fell-by-78on-year-mof

    So ..the question is ...how can the German governement sell any sort of bailout for other countries to their own populace? The answer is, they can't


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