The end of Germany's economic miracle

Yet another recession in the eurozone looms, as German economic growth stumbles.

Any hopes that German growth is set to stage a recovery were dented by the latest set of statistics from the eurozone's largest economy. The closely watched Ifo business sentiment survey tumbled to 103.2 in October, from 104.7 the previous month. That was its sixth consecutive decline and the lowest reading since December 2012.

Both exports and domestic consumption appear to be struggling. GDP contracted in the second quarter of 2012 and many economists expect third-quarter figures due in early November to show a second successive decline. The IMF recently cut its forecast for growth in 2015 to 1.5%.

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Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.