Without ‘Russian supply’, Germany enters recession – 05/25/2023 – Nelson de Sá

Without ‘Russian supply’, Germany enters recession – 05/25/2023 – Nelson de Sá


Following headlines from the Bild tabloid, reproduced below, “Shocking numbers on the economy”, “Germany is in recession” and “No quick, sharp improvement in sight”.

In the magazine Der Spiegel, not much different, “Germany faces a year to forget” and “Nowhere else in the European Union is the economy so bad”.

The explanation everywhere, starting with the Tagesschau news on the ARD network, was given by Commerzbank, the second largest German bank: “The massive increase in energy costs has taken its toll”.

The center-left Süddeustche Zeitung explained that it is the effect of “the increase in energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine, which has depressed the economy for a long time”. The centre-right Die Welt, which was “a ban on the supply of Russian gas”.

Also abroad, from the French financier Les Échos to the American The Wall Street Journal, the explanation was energy costs. The first even made a pun in the title, “An entry into recession that has the effect of a cold shower.”

On Bloomberg TV, “although Germany survived the winter without blackouts, it did not escape the recession”, bearing “the scars of the energy crisis”.

Sanctions on Russia are not the only problem. Both Süddeutsche and Welt complain that the “prospects are gloomy”, of “pronounced recession” advancing into the second half, also because “the burdens of monetary policy are growing” —and it would be important for the European Central Bank to restrain itself.

There is no point in having hope with interest rates, argues Bloomberg, “the ECB has already signaled that it will continue to increase”.

BRASILIA & BEIJING, NOT BERLIN

The coalition of social democrats, greens and liberals in the German government remains in crisis, aggravated by economic data. And Welt points out that the project to “export Germany’s energy transition”, which is making little headway, is falling by the wayside in Brazil.

“Brazil itself is a pioneer in green energy and has already looked for another country as a partner”, without waiting any longer for Berlin, warns the newspaper. “Brasília and Beijing are signing the contracts.” One of the focuses of the agreement would be the production of hydrogen from renewable sources.


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