(Bloomberg) -- Germany will start recovering this summer from its worst recession in recent history and bounce back strongly next year from the pandemic-induced slump, according to the country’s leading economic experts.
Europe’s largest economy will contract 6.5% this year and grow 4.9% in 2021, according to the latest forecast by the Council of Economic Experts, an advisory group to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government also known as the Five Sages.
The projection for this year compares with the Bundesbank’s -7.1% and the government’s forecast of -6.3%.
”The coronavirus pandemic is forecast to cause the worst economic downturn since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” Lars P. Feld, head of the Council, said in a statement released on Tuesday. “However, we expect a recovery to set in from summer onwards.”
To help accelerate the emergence from Germany’s worst recession since the end of World War II, the government this month launched a $145 billion stimulus plan.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Monday that he expected Germany’s economic output to return to pre-crisis levels by the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022.
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