Signs of Recession for Europe's Largest Economy

This week, Germany released new economic figures showing a stagnant 0 percent growth in the last quarter of 2019. These numbers, along with another report showing a rapidly declining industrial production output, show that trouble could be just around the corner for Europe’s largest economy.

Last week, a new German report showed a steep 6.8 percent decline in industrial production for December of 2019. This is the largest decline for the EU country since 2009, and contributed heavily to the already declining industrial production output for the year.

Many are pessimistic about the future outlook of Germany’s economy for 2020 and 2021, with a looming fear of recession hanging over many in the country. Over the last year and a half, the country has narrowly avoided consecutive quarters of declining growth – a common metric for measuring the start of a recession. According to CNBC, Germany grew at the weakest rate in 2019 (0.6 percent) since 2013.