SEEON (dpa-AFX) – After a decline in economic output of 0.3 percent in 2023, Ifo President Clemens Fuest believes a similar development is possible this year too. The economic prospects for this year are also “rather modest,” said Fuest on Sunday at the retreat of CSU members of the Bundestag in Seeon Monastery in Upper Bavaria. “According to our estimates, economic growth will end up somewhere between zero and one percent. But if things go badly, it can also slip into negative territory.”
The medium-term growth prospects are more important. “And here too, Germany faces major challenges.” Fuest cited high energy costs and the growing labor shortage. The energy supply must be increased. “It’s no use first reducing the supply of energy and then subsidizing it to counteract the high prices that inevitably follow.” Politicians must do something about the labor shortage through structural reforms. “It’s about improving the incentives to work.”
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt called for a “growth agenda” that must first and foremost solve the energy problem. What is needed is a “nuclear alliance” with France for research and the construction of new nuclear power plants. Regarding the labor shortage, Dobrindt said: “We need a willingness to make work more worthwhile again.” To do this, for example, overtime would have to be made tax-free and working hours would have to be made more flexible./sk/DP/he