The situation is serious, but not hopeless: Economics Minister Habeck is preparing Germany for a recession. Nevertheless, the slump is less bad than feared in the spring. The Green politician also sees the Kremlin as losing in the energy war.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck sees the figures for the autumn projection as confirmation of the effectiveness of the previous crisis policy. The federal government has so far "successfully" defended itself against the Russian government's attempts at destabilization, said the Greens politician in the afternoon. He referred in particular to estimates by experts from the spring, who would have predicted an economic downturn of between three and nine percent in the event of a complete loss of Russian gas supplies.
In its autumn projection, the Federal Ministry of Economics lowered its growth expectations for the current year from 2.2 percent to 1.4 percent. For the coming year, the ministry had previously assumed growth of 2.5 percent, but now it expects a downturn of 0.4 percent.
"These numbers are bad," Habeck said. But it could have been a lot worse. So the numbers also show "that the measures we took worked." Russian President Vladimir Putin was aiming to destabilize his opponents' economies by cutting off energy supplies, Habeck explained. "I firmly believe that Putin will fail in this attempt, just as he is failing on the battlefield in Ukraine."
According to Economics Minister Habeck, the planned price brakes against the high energy costs will have a noticeable effect. The federal government is expecting inflation of 7.0 percent next year, while the leading research institutes are forecasting 8.8 percent, the Green politician said. Germany will probably achieve the goal of filling the gas storage tanks to 95 percent by tomorrow, Thursday.
He sees the recommendations of the gas price commission as positive, said the minister. "I expressly welcome the proposals." The experts had opted for "flat rate and speed". Taking even more time to achieve more justice would have been worse. "Everyone is working flat out to implement this," said Habeck. "We should now tighten the electricity price brake with the proposals of the gas price commission."
