Germany needs an economic turnaround in order to secure its geopolitical position, German Finance Minister and head of the Free Democrats FDP Christian Lindner said on Saturday.
\nThe German economy was the weakest among its large euro zone peers last year, as high energy costs, feeble global orders and record high interest rates took their toll.
\nThis year will also be challenging for Europe\u2019s biggest economy.
\nIn its World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund has cut its forecasts for German gross domestic product by 0.3 percentage points for both years, expecting 0.2% growth this year and 1.3% in 2025.
\nThese forecasts are below the estimates of 0.8% for 2024 and 1.5% for 2025 for the euro zone, showing that Germany has become a laggard in the bloc, after being the only major economy to suffer a contraction last year.
\nLindner said Germany\u2019s economic weakness has consequences for security and geopolitics.
\n\u201cWe need the economic turnaround because, in the end, economic strength is also a factor in geopolitics,\u201d Lindner said at his party\u2019s conference in Berlin, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s war against Ukraine.
\n\u201cPutin\u2019s goal is to exert power over us, and we must never allow that to happen,\u201d he said. But to have the necessary means against it, economic growth is needed, he said.
\n(Reuters)economic turnaround. economic turnaround, geopolitical position, German Finance Minister<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Germany’s economy was the weakest among its large euro zone peers last year, facing challenges like high energy costs and record high interest rates. The International Monetary Fund has cut its GDP forecasts for Germany, expecting 0.2% growth this year and 1.3% in 2025. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasized the need for an economic turnaround to secure the country’s geopolitical position, especially in the face of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression towards Ukraine. Lindner highlighted that economic strength plays a crucial role in geopolitics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4147,2134,2542,6262,2511,4117,645,8091,5535,26,358,2023,599,201,569,518,696,308,8092,8093,576,3767,899,1401,187,5532,5328,1004,4843,154,827,6377,17,380,1357,293,18],"class_list":["post-9859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-berlin","tag-challenges","tag-conference","tag-consequences","tag-costs","tag-democrats","tag-economic-growth","tag-economic-turnaround","tag-economic-weakness","tag-economy","tag-energy","tag-energy-costs","tag-euro","tag-europe","tag-finance","tag-finance-minister","tag-gdp","tag-geopolitical","tag-geopolitical-position","tag-german-finance-minister","tag-germany","tag-growth","tag-interest","tag-interest-rates","tag-international","tag-lindner","tag-party","tag-power","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-security","tag-strength","tag-ukraine","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n