RWI Konjunkturberichte

The German economy grew unexpectedly fast at the end of 2014. The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter was 0.7% higher than in the previous quarter last year. Moreover, the latest economic indicators suggest that economic activity is expected to increase further during the first months of the current year. At the same time, industrial production is likely to expand at a slower rate than the service sector. This can be explained by the fact that the recent economic recovery was mainly driven by private consumption, where spending on services is disproportionately high. The main channel through which this happened was a sharp fall in oil prices that accelerated the increase in real value of wages and led to a strong expansion of household spending. In light of the currently favorable economic conditions, German economy is anticipated to expand significantly over the forecast horizon, while exceeding the growth rate of potential output. Domestic demand will remain the key driver of the expected economic upswing. Meanwhile, households’ real disposable income is likely to increase considerably and support consumption growth further. The increasing purchasing power, combined with good conditions in the labor market and historically low interest rates are likely to result in a marked increase in residential investment. On the contrary, business investment is expected to pick up only gradually as capacity utilization grows. Furthermore, the contribution from net trade is likely to remain low over the forecast period. However, exports are projected to expand faster as a consequence of improving world economic outlook and appreciation of Euro. Nevertheless, given the strong domestic demand, Imports are expected to grow more rapidly. Based on these considerations, the GDP is projected to grow solidly by 2.1% in 2015. The expansion in household consumption, as well as housing construction investment are expected to lose momentum, as the positive effect of low oil prices on real income is assumed to decay in 2016. However, business investment is likely to expand further, as capacity pressures are projected to increase in a low interest rate environment. Meanwhile, the contribution from net trade will remain subdued. During 2016 the growth rate of German economy is projected to slow down gradually with an annual rate of 1.9%. Strong economic expansion is likely to be reflected in employment growth. While the increase in low-skilled labor costs resulting from the introduction of the nationwide statutory minimum wage is likely to have an overall dampening effect, some affected sectors already passed on the rise in labor costs in the form of higher prices. Furthermore, additional workforce will continue to be recruited mainly from the growing potential labor supply leading to a decrease in the unemployment rate to 6.4% in 2015 and 6.2% in 2016. Purchasing power gains associated with a drop in oil prices will be a strong driving force behind this year’s economic growth. The inflation rate is therefore expected to fall 0.4% this year while the core inflation (which excludes energy prices) is projected to stand at 1.1%. Over the forecast horizon the effects of low oil prices on inflation are likely to decay and result in its increase to 1.5%. The core inflation is also expected to rise to 1.6% in 2016. The fiscal situation improved considerably last year with all government levels enjoying budgetary surpluses. Although the stance of fiscal policy will remain expansive over the forecast period, budgetary surpluses are projected to result from high government revenues. The latter are expected to rise due to strong economic activity. Budgetary surplus is projected to amount to €16 bn in 2015 and 2016, respectively, which is consistent with 0.5% of nominal GDP. Moreover, besides low energy prices, the expansionary monetary policy stance is also expected to boost economic growth this year. The latest monetary policy easing move is likely to increase economic growth through two channels: directly through the interest rate and indirectly through the exchange rate channels. Although fiscal policy will also remain expansive, structural budgetary surpluses are unlikely to be used to produce more economic growth. In what concerns other areas of economic policy making, regulatory interventions seem to dominate.

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