Ifo head of economic forecasts Timo Wollmershäuser said Germany’s GDP should have dropped by -1.9% in Q1 and would contract -12.2% in Q2. Overall, the economy is likely to shrink by -6.6% in this calendar adjusted year, or -6.2% when the large number of working days are taking into account.
Wollmershäuser adds: “We will only be back to the state before Corona at the end of 2021. Then as many goods and services will be produced as in a situation without a corona crisis. The gross domestic product will have to increase by 8.5 percent in 2021. ”
Also from Ifo, Germany’s employment barometer plunged to 86.3 in April, down from 93.4, hitting a new record low. All four sectorial employment barometer also deteriorated and turned negative (manufacturing from -18.3 to -28.6, services from -3.4 to -19.4, trade fro m-8.0 to -25.6, construction from 2.3 to -7.0.
