According to calculations of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the German economy shrank in summer for the first time since the beginning of 2015. „The economic performance in Germany should have dropped in the third quarter by about 0.3 percent,“ said the researchers of the IfW today. This is suggested by the recent flash estimate published by the Statistical Office Eurostat for gross domestic product (GDP) growth of around 0.2% in the euro area.
Car test procedures slowed production
Here too unpublished data on German GDP have been incorporated. „A major contributor to the decline is likely to be declining production in the automotive industry as a result of the introduction of the new WLTP test standard to determine passenger car fuel consumption and emissions.“
„German manufacturers did not go through the new test procedure in time for all vehicle types and therefore had to reduce production in the third quarter,“ explained the IfW. In addition, inland waterway transport problems due to low water levels in the rivers are likely to have hampered production in other sectors, such as the chemical industry.
