BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s BDI industry association expects exports to grow by 2% in 2023, double its forecast in January, its president told the Rheinische Post newspaper in comments published on Saturday.
“Things are looking up, but only slowly – we must not be satisfied with that,” BDI President Siegfried Russwurm told the newspaper.
Even with the improved outlook, Germany still lags behind the forecast for global trade of 2.5% export growth, according to BDI figures cited in the report.
Export growth has slowed considerably since Germany’s post-pandemic recovery. Exports grew by 2.9% in 2022 and 9.1% in 2021.
The BDI president said Germany was falling behind other countries where energy prices are not as high.
“The reality is that energy-intensive companies in particular are increasingly relocating parts of their production abroad,” Russwurm said.
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(Writing by Friederike Heine, Editing by Rachel More)