- German industry went into a sudden and unexpected collapse in November. The data is so bad some economists think it might be wrong.
- Nonetheless, they agree that Germany may have been in a recession for the last two quarters of 2018.
- Germany is the largest economy in Europe and the fourth-largest on the planet. So this is bad.
Germany may be in recession, economists said, after they trawled through an unexpectedly horrible set of industrial and manufacturing data published on Wednesday’s from the world’s fourth-largest economy.
- German industrial production fell by -1.9% in November.
- Year over year, production hit a low of -4.6% — the biggest trough since the 2008 crisis.
- Germany’s exports fell -0.4% month over month in November, the government reported today.
Oxford EconomicsSuddenly, Europe is faltering.
Germany is the largest European economy and its leaders have an outsized influence on the rest of the EU and the European Central Bank. A recession in Germany could easily drag down France and Italy — and the latter country is already likely in a recession of its own. Greece is still struggling to recover from its debt crisis and neighbouring Turkey also dropped into a steep recession, triggered by the devaluation of its currency….
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