Germany Dodges Recession, Sentiment Rises

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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Today, Germany confirmed that its first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) rose by a mere 0.1%. There was some excitement that the largest economy in Europe had dodged a recession, which is something its neighbors cannot claim. However, that GDP growth number was so perilously close to zero that to call Germany’s predicament a recession would not be far off the mark.

On the other hand, the dark cloud does have a silver lining. Sentiment about future business prospects in Germany did improve:

The Ifo Business Climate Index for industry and trade in Germany has risen again after two consecutive declines. The firms are clearly more satisfied with their current business situation than in the previous month. The outlook for future business is unchanged and slightly positive. The German economy remains on track in a challenging European environment.

The business climate indicators in manufacturing, wholesale and retail improved, though in construction they fell somewhat.

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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