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April 05, 2019

Commerzbank Research: German economy even weaker than expected

  • Chief economist Krämer: “The economy continues to be in a gray area between a marked slowdown and a recession”
  • Brexit: Last minute agreement on customs union
  • ECB rate hike neither this nor next year

In the first quarter, German economy performed weaker than expected. According to Commerzbank Research, the German gross domestic product hardly grew during this period. "This reduces the foundation for our year-end forecast, which we are lowering from 0.6% to 0.4%," said Commerzbank chief economist Jörg Krämer on Friday in Frankfurt. However, the outlook for the second half of the year remains unchanged. "Domestic demand is robust and the Chinese economy is expected to recover, which will revive exports to China," Krämer said.

However, Germany and the Eurozone are still suffering from the slowdown in foreign trade. "The economy continues to be in a gray area between a marked slowdown and a recession," said Krämer. Recession should be avoided if the Chinese economy stabilises towards the middle of the year. For the Eurozone, Commerzbank economists expect growth of 0.9% in 2019.

Commerzbank experts continue to regard a disorderly Brexit as possible. However, they welcome the direct talks between Prime Minister Theresa May and the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. "The United Kingdom and the European Union could agree on a customs union at the very last minute," said Krämer. "Common external tariffs in a customs union could prevent the ‘unpopular’ backstop."

Meanwhile, things are going better in the USA. “In July, the US upturn will be the longest since 1854,” said Krämer. “But upswings do not die of old age, but of exaggeration.” Krämer, however, still doesn’t see major exaggerations in the market. Commerzbank economists are expecting US growth to slow down to 2.5% in 2019 (2018: 2.9%). This is specifically due to the decreasing impetus of last year’s tax cuts and the growing labour shortage.

With regard to the monetary policy in the Eurozone, Commerzbank analysts expect that in autumn the European Central Bank (ECB) will decide to leave key rates unchanged not only until the end of 2019 but until the end of 2020. For next Wednesday’s meeting, the Bank's experts do not expect any resolutions on details of long-term tender operations (TLTRO). 

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Press contact
Stefan Gringel               +49 69 136-51435         stefan.gringel@commerzbank.com

 

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About Commerzbank
Commerzbank is a leading international commercial bank with branches and offices in almost 50 coun­tries. In the two business segments Private and Small-Business Customers and Corporate Clients, the Bank offers a comprehensive portfolio of financial services which is precisely aligned to its clients’ needs. Commerzbank finances approximately 30% of Germany’s foreign trade and is the leading finance provider for corporate clients in Germany. Due to its in-depth sector know-how in the German economy, the Bank is a leading provider of capital market products. Its subsidiaries Comdirect in Germany and mBank in Poland are two of the world’s most innovative online banks. With approximately 1,000 branches, Commerzbank has one of the densest branch networks among German private banks. In total, Commerzbank serves more than 18 million private and small business customers, as well as more than 70,000 corporate clients, multinationals, financial service providers, and institutional clients worldwide. In 2018, it generated gross revenues of €8.6 billion with approximately 49,000 employees.

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Disclaimer
This release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts. In this release, these statements concern inter alia the expected future business of Commerzbank, efficiency gains and expected synergies, expected growth prospects and other opportunities for an increase in value of Commerzbank as well as expected future financial results, restructuring costs and other financial developments and information. These forward-looking statements are based on the management’s current plans, expectations, estimates and projections. They are subject to a number of assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results and developments to differ materially from any future results and developments expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include the conditions in the financial markets in Germany, in Europe, in the USA and other regions from which Commerzbank derives a substantial portion of its revenues and in which Commerzbank holds a substantial portion of its assets, the development of asset prices and market volatility, especially due to the ongoing European debt crisis, potential defaults of borrowers or trading counterparties, the implementation of its strategic initiatives to improve its business model, the reliability of its risk management policies, procedures and methods, risks arising as a result of regulatory change and other risks. Forward-looking statements therefore speak only as of the date they are made. Commerzbank has no obligation to update or release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained in this release to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release.

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