Why German Growth Fears Are Overblown

With GDP growing just 0.1 percent in the third quarter, itâ??s fair to say the recent news about the German economy has been poor. However, it would be unwise to get too caught up in the slowdown hype. Although the European Commission downgraded its forecast for the countryâ??s 2015 GDP growth to 1.1 percent earlier this month, our research indicates this should be more like 1.5 percent. Despite renewed uncertainty over the euro zoneâ??s stuttering economy, and over European Central Bank policy in particular, Germany is still competitive enough to pave the way for euro zone growth next year.