UNEXPECTEDLY
There’s that “U” word, and no one is more surprised than Olaf Scholz and his Green cultists.
The Germans had such hopes for eking out a teensy gain this quarter.
Output in Europe’s biggest economy contracted by 0.1 percent compared with the previous three months, federal statistics office Destatis said, after expanding by 0.2 percent in the first quarter.
The second-quarter data surprised analysts surveyed by FactSet who had forecast a 0.1-percent increase.
The April-to-June period noticeably saw declining investment in equipment and construction, Destatis said.
“The German economy is stuck in crisis,” said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of surveys at Ifo economic institute, citing persistent weakness in manufacturing and sluggish private consumption.
Inflation ticked up a notch, too. That’s hardly helpful to a ruling coalition that just got their lederhosen handed to them because…
