Braking beyond expectations for the German GDP in the second quarter: -10,1% compared to an expectation of 9%. On a trend level, the decline is 11,7%.
This is an all-time low, the worst drop in the indicator since the beginning of quarterly measurements of GDP in Germany in 1970, found the statistics body Destatis. In the second quarter, both exports and imports of goods and services plunged massively, as a result of the paralysis of production in many sectors, in addition to the slowdown in trade and consumption. In April, at the height of the Covid-19 restrictions, manufacturing output recorded a historic decline of 17,9%; industrial orders fell 25,8% and exports fell 31,1%; many restrictions have been lifted since May and there has been a recovery in economic activity. The German government expects growth to return by October, rebounding 5,2% from 2021 and returning to pre-crisis output levels in 2022.
The data on GDP, combined with a recovery of infections in Germany and the fear of a new advance of the pandemic at a global level, have slowed down the European stock exchanges with sales focused on cars and banks. Milan records a – 2,7% but Frankfurt is worse: -2,9%. London also travels with a loss of 2%, Paris around -1,8%.
MORE UNEMPLOYED: OVER 27% AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE
The encouraging data on the fall in German unemployment (6,4%) in July, released subsequently were not enough to restore confidence. Nor, on this front, is there any good news from the rest of Europe and from Italy where – in June – unemployment started to rise again with an average +8,8% but with a tip of 27,6% among young people aged 15-24, up 1,9% from the previous month.
Nell'Eurozone it didn't get much better. In June, the month when the Covid-19-related containment measures started to be lifted in most member states, the unemployment rate stood at 7,8%, up from 7,7% in May ( revised data). Among young people up to 25, the unemployment rate rose to 17% in the Eurozone from 16,5% in May.
