German Economy Ministry Confident on 2nd Quarter Growth

The German economy is likely to have expanded significantly between April and June, helped by higher private consumption and investment in construction, but growth will be more modest in the rest of the year, the Economy Ministry said.

“The German economy grew briskly in the spring,” the ministry said on Friday in its monthly report. “After the weather dampened growth in the first quarter, there was a growth spurt in the second quarter due to catch-up effects.”

The modest underlying rate of growth in the economy should accelerate slightly in the rest of year, held back by the tough European and international environment, the ministry said.

The Bundesbank said in June that the German economy would slow down after a surge in the second quarter and expected just 0.3 percent growth for the year as a whole.

Since then, the data picture has brightened somewhat, with industrial production and orders increasing much more briskly than expected in June.

Preliminary data on second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) in Europe’s largest economy is due on August 14 – five weeks before parliamentary elections.

via Reuters

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza