{"text":[[{"start":8.04,"text":"Germany is on track for its strongest GDP growth since 2022 as the economy performed better than previously thought in the second quarter and business optimism improved despite high energy prices and disruption from heatwaves."}],[{"start":23.44,"text":"Europe’s largest economy expanded by 0.3 per cent between April and June, Germany’s statistics office reported on Tuesday, compared with an initial estimate of just 0.2 per cent."}],[{"start":35.94,"text":"Optimism among German companies in August also rebounded faster than anticipated, with the closely watched Ifo business climate index rising by 2.1 points to 88.8, the highest reading in a year and above the 87.1 points expected by economists polled by Reuters."}],[{"start":53.94,"text":"Germany is now on track for 1.2 per cent growth this year instead of just 0.7 per cent, according to Sebastian Dullien, research director of the IMK, a Berlin-based think-tank. That would be the highest increase since 2022, after which the economy fell into a long period of stagnation, caused in part by the energy price crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine."}],[{"start":77.74,"text":"The economy’s surprising resilience comes despite fears that high oil and gas prices driven by the Middle East conflict and historically low water levels in the Rhine River — a key route for cargo ships serving Germany’s industrial and chemicals companies — would dent growth this year."}],[{"start":93.08,"text":"“Before the revision, German GDP in early 2026 had still been almost 1 per cent shy of its peak in 2022,” wrote Dullien in a blog post published after the latest data."}],[{"start":104.04,"text":"KfW bank on Tuesday also increased its growth forecasts, by 0.4 percentage points to 1.1 per cent for 2026 and by 0.2 percentage points to 1.5 per cent next year. “There is justified hope that industrial production will pick up noticeably over time,” said Dirk Schumacher, KfW chief economist."}],[{"start":124.64,"text":"The good Ifo reading on Tuesday, driven by better current conditions as well as more optimistic expectations, follows better than expected purchasing managers’ surveys for Germany last week."}],[{"start":135.12,"text":"“We are cautiously optimistic that we are starting to see clearer signs of a pick-up in growth in the German economy,” Pia Fromlet, economist at SEB, wrote in a note to clients."}],[{"start":144.56,"text":"The improvements in GDP growth forecasts by IMK and KfW were also driven by statistical effects linked to a revision by Destatis of earlier data."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":154.92,"text":"IMK’s Dullien said that even though the updated 2026 forecast was still not “great”, growth in Germany this year was likely to be better than in other western European economies such as France, the UK or the Netherlands."}],[{"start":169.56,"text":"Carsten Brzeski, ING’s global head of macro, now also predicts the highest annual growth in Germany since 2022. “The German economy has developed an unexpected resilience,” he wrote in a note to clients. “It seems as if German sentiment has become immune or numb to the long list of potential downside risks.”"}],[{"start":195.73,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1787705351_7606.mp3"}