Representatives for the German industry are expecting 2020 to continue to be a difficult year after the economy suffered in 2019 due to trade disputes and political uncertainty.
"We're currently in contraction, a low point isn't in sight," the head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Dieter Kempf, told dpa.
The president of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Eric Schweitzer, was somewhat more optimistic, noting sentiment has become slightly better recently.
"But the concrete responses from many companies still point mostly to one conclusion: 2020 will be a challenging year for the German economy," Schweitzer told dpa.
A trade war between the US and several other countries as well as uncertainty surrounding Brexit and intentional conflicts put the brakes on the world economy in recent months.
Economic growth in Europe's largest economy has staggered this year with Germany's Bundesbank saying last week it expects stagnation in the final quarter of 2019.
Gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter and the central bank only expects a total of 0.5-per-cent growth this year and next each.
Exporting companies in Germany expect "a year of transition which - if everything goes well - will be somewhat better than the current year," said Holger Bingmann, the president of the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA).
Economic development in Germany and beyond depends largely on how US President Donald Trump handles economic policy during his election campaign, Bingmann noted.
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