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Thursday, 30 July 2020_The German economy shrank by a record 10.1 percent in the second quarter as coronavirus lockdowns took their toll, official data shows, but experts say a recovery is already under way.
Federal statistics agency Destatis called the quarter-on-quarter decline in gross domestic product "historic" and far bigger than any slump seen during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier had warned earlier this year that the pandemic would push Europe's top economy into "the worst recession" in its postwar history, ending a decade of growth.
Analysts had expected a slightly smaller contraction of around nine percent for the April-June period.
Destatis said efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak had led to "a massive slump" in exports and imports, although government spending had increased over the period.
The agency also revised its first quarter data, saying German output declined 2.0 percent from January to March instead of the previously announced 2.2 percent.
But the worst pain may already be over.
Thursday's data "is nothing more than a look in the rearview mirror", ING bank economist Carsten Brzeski said, expecting to see "a strong rebound" in the third quarter.
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