Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung im Inland: Aufschwung setzt sich fort, Gefährdungen nehmen zu
In the first half of 2018 the upswing of the German economy continued, even if it lost momentum to some degree. Growth was driven by domestic demand. Private consumption was supported by favorable developments in the labor market, and investment expanded strongly. However, construction activity seems to be hampered by capacity restrictions, which has already led to a stronger increase of construction costs. Over the forecast period, economic momentum will continue to be driven by domestic demand, whereas exports will remain subdued, owed to an increasingly protectionist stance in many countries. Private consumption, on the other hand, will benefit from a sustained increase in employment, but will also be supported by expansionary fiscal measures, in particular in 2019. High capacity utilization will be reflected by a further increase in investment. In sum, we expect GDP to increase by 1.8 percent this year and by 1.7 percent in 2019. In 2020, GDP is forecasted to grow by 1.9 percent. However, this figure is strongly affected by a working day effect. Adjusting for this, the economy will grow more slowly compared to the year before. Employment will continue to grow but lose some momentum. New jobs will be created primarily in service industries. Since the expansion of the labor force has slowed down, new employees are increasingly recruited among the unemployed. We expect this trend to continue, which will decrease the number of unemployment persons to the two million mark. Inflation has accelerated to 2 percent in the recent months, reflecting a strong increase in energy prices. At the same time, core inflation has remained unchanged. For the next two and a half years, core inflation is expected to rise due to high capacity utilization, whereas the effect of energy prices is assumed to phase out. Consumer prices will increase by 1.9 percent this year and the next and by 1.7 percent in 2020. Fiscal surplus will rise to € 57 bn this year, since the current composition of GDP growth is rather beneficial for creating tax revenues. For 2019, fiscal stance can be expected to be more expansionary. Thus, fiscal surplus will be reduced to € 46 bn in 2019 and to € 47 bn in 2020. However, the cyclically adjusted balance will decline more markedly owed to the looser fiscal stance. However, this forecast is associated with considerable downside risks, mostly originating from the international environment. It cannot be ruled out that trade conflicts will aggravate, that there will be a hard Brexit, and that the current economic problems in Turkey will lead to a contagion effect in other emerging markets. All these developments could have significant negative effects on an economy with a strong export sector.
Döhrn, R., G. Barabas, B. Blagov, A. Fuest, P. Jäger, R. Jessen, M. Micheli and S. Rujin (2018), Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung im Inland: Aufschwung setzt sich fort, Gefährdungen nehmen zu. RWI Konjunkturberichte, 69, 3, 21-56