That development has been reinforced by the too high wage settlements in this year’s pay round. We in Germany are thus clearly in a very difficult economic situation. The current slight improvement is still very fragile. That improvement is due primarily to external stimuli and influences from inventories. The “cyclical breakthrough” has therefore not been achieved yet.
In cyclical terms, we are still in the initial phase of an improvement that could quickly be put at risk again. Even so, the economy did grow somewhat in the first three quarters of this year. Thanks to orders from abroad, exports have once again made a major contribution to growth. Owing to an increased number of car sales, private consumption has assisted growth.