Is Germany the sick man of Europe?

There must be a slight flaw in the IMF’s crystal ball, causing the future prospects for the German economy to be refracted onto Britain. Remember a year ago when the IMF confidently predicted that the UK economy would suffer the worst performance of any major industrial nation and contract by 0.6 per cent in 2023, worse even than Russia? The Remain lobby had a field day, presenting it as ‘evidence’ that our departure from the EU had put us in the international slow lane.

It wouldn’t have been such a bad forecast, it turns out, had it been for Germany. The German economy, it has been announced today, shrank by 0.3 per cent last year – worse, it looks like, than any other large country. Industrial production, hit by high energy costs, contracted by 2 per cent, but it wasn’t just that. Household consumption fell by 0.8 per cent and government spending, hit by the end of Covid-related funding, fell back by 1.7