A waiter wipes a table on a cafe terrace in Berlin on Aug. 24. Activity in Europe’s biggest economy has staged a strong rebound after collapsing in the second quarter, and German companies turned slightly more optimistic this month that the economy will continue on its long road to recovery.
Read more: Merkel Warns of Long Road Ahead in Europe’s Virus Crisis
To soften the blow from the pandemic, Merkel’s government suspended constitutional debt limits as part of a massive stimulus program. However, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has said he doesn’t expect gross domestic product to reach pre-crisis levels before late 2021 at the earliest.
Infections are on the rise again after the summer holiday season, stoking fears of a new round of lockdowns that could plunge economies across Europe back into recession.
The German government will revise up its forecast for 2020 gross domestic product to a decline of less than 6%, Reuters reported earlier on Monday, without identifying the source of its information. It will also revise down its growth prediction for next year, the report said.