German ‘wise men’ slash their growth forecast

Economic advisors to the German government more than halved their forecast for 2013 growth on Monday (25 March), blaming a sharp fourth-quarter contraction and weak prospects for foreign trade and investment.

The advisors, known in Germany as the "wise men", predicted the economy would almost grind to a halt this year, growing just 0.3% compared to 0.7% in 2012.

In October they had forecast Europe's largest economy to expand 0.8% in 2013, but data has since shown that it shrank by 0.6% in the last three months of 2012.