German central bank sees the economy stagnating again in the 3rd quarter

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s central bank anticipates that the country’s economy, Europe’s biggest, will be more or less stagnant again in the current quarter. German gross domestic product stagnated in the second quarter after declining in both of the two previous quarters as the country struggled with high energy prices, rising borrowing costs and weakness in China, which has been a key trading partner. The International Monetary Fund forecast last month that Germany would be the globe’s only major economy to shrink this year. A monthly report Monday from the Bundesbank, Germany’s central bank, indicated that the picture isn’t about to improve. It wrote that “in the third quarter of 2023, German economic output will probably remain largely unchanged again.”