Recently, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has begun to add to the un-certainty. With its negative impact on transportation and tourism, it seems capable of inflicting serious economic damage at least in Asia, where up to now most of the cases have been observed. Some forecasters even cut their growth forecasts.
1.2  A thorough look at the German economy  Let me now comment on the situation in Germany. Germany-bashing has become a bit of a fashion recently. Some even suspect that we will become another Japan. I take that sort of criticism seriously, and I do see the parallels that lead to such comparisons.