Germany hopeful of spring, risks remain

FRANKFURT - Agence France-Presse

Bundesbank’s head Axel Weber speaks during a meeting in Vienna. AP photo

The outlook for the German economy, Europe’s biggest, has “brightened perceptibly” but growth risks from the eurozone debt crisis persist, the Bundesbank said yesterday.

“The prospects for the German economy have brightened perceptibly recently but the risks from the sovereign debt crisis remain,” the German central bank wrote in its monthly bulletin for February.

According to a preliminary estimate by the national statistics office Destatis last week, the German economy shrank 0.2 percent in the period from October to December as the eurozone debt crisis brought the economy to a standstill.

Activity “will continue to be dampened by external factors in the first quarter of 2012,” the Bundesbank wrote.

“But cyclical stimuli will gain the upper hand from the spring,” it added.