Can anything stop Germany’s decline?

Brexit is, we’re told, a disaster that shaved a hefty slice off UK economic growth. But there does seem to be a very large proverbial elephant standing in the way of this thesis. Our EU neighbours don’t seem to have been doing any better than an admittedly sluggish – if now recovering – Britain. While the UK economy grew by 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this year followed by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter, the French economy managed only 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent.

It is Germany that continues to surprise most on the downside. The economy shrank again in the second quarter, by 0.1 per cent. The German economy has now contracted in four of the last seven quarters, only avoiding the technical definition of a recession by virtue of the fact that so far it has not seen two consecutive quarters of contraction.