FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The German economy is rebounding and may well continue to do so in the second half of the year, supported by the government’s fiscal stimulus measures taken in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Bundesbank said on Monday.
“In the second half of the year, the economic recovery could continue,” the German central bank said in its monthly report. “The recent stimulus package will also contribute to that.”
The German central bank also said it expected the pandemic-related global slowdown in trade to bring down the country’s oversized current account surplus.
This has been the target of criticism both within the European Union and by Donald Trump’s U.S. administration for causing macro-economic imbalances.
The Bundesbank now sees Germany’s current account surplus at less than 5% of the country’s gross domestic product each year until 2022, down from more than 7% last year.
(Reporting by Francesco Canepa, editing by Ed Osmond)
