Germany’s economic prospects for this year have darkened

IF EUROPE’S ECONOMIES were a brass band, Germany’s would be the tuba: the biggest, most reliable generator of oom-pah-pah on a continent of cornets and bugles. Last spring it coped with the sharpest recession since the second world war better than its neighbours, thanks to a shorter and looser covid-19 lockdown and a massive fiscal stimulus. This year Germany was expected to recover its mighty puff more quickly than its peers.However, the latest statistics suggest that the tuba’s valves are stuck: the recovery might not be as robust as forecast. On January 14th Destatis, the official statistics agency, announced that the German economy shrank by 5% last year. This is painful, but not nearly as bad as the double-digit contractions expected in Spain and several other European countries. In the last quarter of the year it stagnated, Destatis said.