
The German economy shrank for the first time in three years in the third quarter, a slowdown caused largely by bottlenecks in certifying new cars under tougher tests after the diesel emissions-cheating scandal. GDP contracted by 0.2 per cent over the summer, more than expected, according to the federal statistics office. It is a marked slowdown from growth of 0.4 per cent in the first quarter and 0.5 per cent in the second.
Peter Altmaier, the economy minister, told a conference organised by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that the decline was "not a catastrophe" and predicted that GDP would rise in this quarter. He said that the contraction in GDP was a warning sign that any economic upturn was "fragile". An unusually hot and dry…
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