German Chancellor Angela Merkel removes her face mask while giving a press conference on the true situation among the coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic, following a meeting with the name Corona-Cabinet, on November 2, 2020 in Berlin.
Kay Nietfeld | AFP | Getty Images
The German economy was under a 5% contraction in 2020, according to full-year GDP (gross domestic product) data released on Thursday.
The preliminary figures, which were slightly better than the 5.1% forecast, come after a year of economic turmoil for Germany, and the rest of the world, due to the spread of coronavirus infection concerns for businesses and large areas of the economy.
Coronavirus outbreaks have triggered a number of locks on public life and economic activity in Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel announced last week that the latest lockout would be extended until the end of the month.
Amid growing concern about a more viral spread of the virus, first reported in the UK, German newspaper Bild reported earlier in the week that Merkel had told a meeting of lawyers from the party Her Christian Democratic Union said the current lockout could last until the beginning of April.
On Thursday, Germany reported more than 25,000 new cases of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 1,978,590, data from the Robert Koch Institute showed.
Carsten Brzeski, head of global macro at ING, said that “continuous locks and single-track positive factors are not going well for the first quarter” of 2021.
“As positive factors such as building and construction may not help in the fourth quarter, and demand from China may also weaken behind locks and the Chinese New Year, the performance of the first quarter of the economy should Germany will be weak, “he said in a note on Thursday.
“While it currently looks as if the German economy will avoid a black eye in the last quarter of 2020, it is hard to see how it can do the same magic again in the first quarter. . ”