30/01/2023
The German economy shrank in the last quarter of 2022, as damage from the Ukrainian crisis hit the old continent's biggest economy hard.
And in Germany, the Federal Statistics Office announced that the country's gross domestic product contracted by 0.2 percent during the fourth quarter of last year, defying expectations that had pegged it at zero percent growth without stabilization. Advised.
The office revised its growth forecast for the third quarter of 2022, raising it to 0.5 percent, ahead of the previous rate of 0.4 percent.
On an annual basis, the German economy expanded 0.5 percent, compared to expectations for a 0.8 percent increase.
The energy crisis that resulted from the war in Ukraine destabilized the German economic model, which relied in particular on massive imports of cheap gas from Russia, in a way that prompted it to establish a second line called "Nord Stream 2" that did not enter service, after it relied heavily on Baseline "Nord Stream 1".
And last October, official data showed that the German economy grew unexpectedly in the third quarter, as Europe's largest economy escaped the threat of recession at the time, despite rising inflation and concerns about energy supplies.
The annual inflation rate in Germany slowed down last December, for the second month in a row, after inflation rates in 2022 recorded their highest levels in nearly 70 years.
Data from the German Federal Statistical Office showed in mid-January that consumer price inflation in Europe's largest economy fell to 8.6 percent on an annual basis, in line with expectations, compared to 10 percent in November.
The bureau said coordinated inflation fell to 9.6 percent year on year in December, in line with analysts' expectations, from 11.3 percent in November.
The Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is used to measure inflation in the eurozone, and it is "harmonized" because all EU countries follow the same methodology for calculating inflation.
For the whole of 2022, the bureau said, coordinated inflation was 8.7 percent.