Ifo growth outlook
December 11, 2014
Germany's gross domestic product will expand by 1.5 percent next year, the Munich-based Ifo institute said Thursday as it presented ts 2015 outlook, revising an earlier estimate of just 1.2 percent growth.
The think tank appeared more optimistic than most of the country's other leading economic institutes, which predicted the German economy would grow by no more than 1.3 percent next year.
Ifo, for its part, argued the stronger pickup would ride on a wave of consumer confidence that had fueled domestic consumption.
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"Falling oil prices and a weaker euro against the greenback have helped to overcome the state of shock consumers were in after the onset of the Ukraine crisis," Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn said in a statement. "But companies too are now looking to the future with more confidence again."
Sinn said his institute banked on German exports surging by another 5.2 percent in 2015, with imports increasing even more by 5.8 percent which would still leave the country with a surplus of 222 billion euros ($277 billion) overall.
hg/cjc (Reuters, dpa)