Although a slight rebound is expected in 2024, the long-term trend points to potential growth of 0.5 percent annually, and “Germany is falling further and further behind the United States and China,” said the president of the BDI, Siegfried Russwurm, at a forum with the participation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
According to the group’s calculations, industrial production will register a year-on-year decline of 1.5 percent; In fact, installed capacity utilization in the manufacturing sector fell to 80.3 percent at the beginning of the second quarter, an indicator that was only lower during the global financial crisis and at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Russwurm noted.
According to the manager, the national industry expects an agenda from the Government in order to expand public investment, reduce bureaucracy, facilitate business planning of energy costs, accelerate the expansion of the electrical grid and counteract the workforce shortage.
In the opinion of the BDI, not only Germany, but the entire European Union needs a growth plan to restore competitiveness, innovation and dynamism and be able to keep pace with geoeconomic competition.
For his part, Chancellor Scholz assured that the Government has planned a revitalization package to stimulate the rise of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which includes reforms in the labor field that would increase the availability of labor.
Likewise, he confirmed that the Executive is intensely debating how to make measures to reduce energy costs permanent and offer companies more clarity about the current situation and future policies.
In his promises of relief, the dignitary assured that, “I could even imagine that we went one step further in terms of amortization and financing of research than what we have achieved with the Growth Opportunities Law.”
Regarding the EU panorama, he considered it a vital issue that companies have better financing options within the territory of the bloc and do not have to emigrate to the United States, for example, due to lack of access to capital.
To achieve cohesion within the EU framework, he considered, economic growth and a more efficient State are required, both for its citizens and for companies, even more so given the advance of the extreme right in some countries in the area.
“Pandemic, war, climate change, irregular migration, inflation: the major crises have greatly worried many citizens, so much in fact, that many people risk losing confidence that we are going to overcome this,” he added when characterizing the scenario. .
mem/mjm
