The skyline of the banking city Frankfurt at sunset as seen from a bridge nearby. (picture alliance/dpa)
After a year of weak growth and falling exports, the German government is confident that things are looking up for the economy, increasing its growth forecast for 2020.
"The outlook has brightened," Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Wednesday in Berlin.
In its annual report on the German economy, the government forecast a 1.1-per-cent rise in gross domestic product over the course of 2020.
"The economy will develop better this year than was expected last year," Altmaier said while presenting the report.
In autumn 2019, the government had predicted GDP growth of 1.0 per cent for this year.
In 2019, Europe's largest economy grew by just 0.6 per cent, according to preliminary government data, marking Germany's weakest annual growth rate in seven years and a noticeable drop on the 1.5-per-cent growth seen in 2018.
This was largely put down to the trade war between the United States and China, which those countries have since taken steps to resolve.
"The German economy is slowly overcoming its weak phase," Wednesday's government report said.
The government's economic forecast for 2020 is markedly more optimistic than that of Germany's BDI industry association, which expects GDP to grow by just 0.5 per cent over the course of the year.
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