So, die deutsche Wirtschaft ist im ersten Quartal 2024 wohl (auf Grund gestiegener Preise!) einer Rezession entronnen (hier) und gleich frohlocket Herr Habeck (hier), der kurz zuvor noch die bisherige Misere auf 16 Jahre Merkel geschoben hatte (hier). Also, alles toffte im Land der Bedenkenträger! Oder?
„Risikoradar – Bankenkrise – Still ruht der See…“ weiterlesenThe German economy in October 2024 – nothing goes to heck in a straight line
Just after I sent out my last monthly (here), Destatis announced that at least in the third quarter, Germany’s economy experienced a slight growth (here). So, not all is bad in Germany? Well, let’s see and take a closer look on how Germany’s economy fared in October:
Although the German GDP actually did grow by 0.2% in the third quarter, pundits already claimed that this is rather an exceptional spike than reversal in the overall trend (here, in German). Indeed, the „five wise economic (wo-)men“ („Wirtschaftsweise„) acknowledged recently that economic growth will be negative in 2024 and sluggish in 2025 (here, comment here, in German).
The German DAX price index (for an explanation, why I prefer this index, cf. here), did lose some ground in October and also „enjoyed“ a nice roller coaster ride, starting at 7,381 points on 1 October, crashing again first (like in the previous months) to 7,305 points on 3 October already, before rising strongly to 7,551 points on 18 October, then entering the next volatility cycle, ending the month lower at 7,329 points.
German industrial orders surprisingly gained some ground again: after continually decreasing since March, first by -0.4% (MoM, -5.8% YoY) in March, by another -0.2% (MoM, still -1.6% YoY) in April and by another -1.6% (MoM, even -8.6% YoY) in May, orders then increased by +3.9% (MoM, but still -11.8 YoY) in June and by +2.9% (MoM and also by +3.7% YoY) in July, declining by -5.8% (MoM, -3.9% YoY) in August, before gaining 4.2% (MoM, also +1.0% YoY) in September 2024. There against, Germany’s industrial production lost it’s momentum again: after decreasing by -0,4% (MoM, even -3.3 YoY) in March, -0.1% (MoM, -3.9% YoY) in April and even by –2.5% (MoM, -6.7% YoY) in May, production rose by +1.4% (MoM, but still -4.1% YoY) in June, again decreased by -2.4% (MoM, even -5.3% YoY) in July, before again increasing by 2.9% (MoM, but -2.7% YoY) in August, production sank by -2.5% (MoM, even -4.6% YoY) in September 2024. Also, German exports shrank – at least on a monthly basis: after increasing by 0.9% (MoM, +1,2% YoY) in March and 1.6% (MoM, 1.9% YoY) in April, exports decreased by -3.6% (MoM, -1.6% YoY) in May and -3.4% (MoM, even 4.4% YoY) in June before increasing by +1.7% (MoM, but still -1.2% YoY) in July and now by a further 1.3% (MoM, +0.1% YoY) in August, they decreased by -1.7% (MoM, -0.2% YoY) in September 2024. Still, due to the growth in previous months, exports achieved a 0.5% growth in the third quarter of 2024. For other German KPI’s, I refer you to the „Destatis Deutschland-Dashboard“ (here) and the „Data Commons (Germany)“ (here).
The German Target 2 balance lost roughly Euro 9bn in October 2024 and ended at Euro 1,064bn. The German inflation-rate stopped its decline: starting from its peak of 10.4% in October 2022, the rate decreased to finally 1.6% in September but has now increased to 2.0% in October 2024 (each YoY).
The German Labor market stalled in October: After the unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in August and declined slightly to 6.0% in September, it remained at 6.0% in October 2024 (all MoM). The Bundesagentur nails it: „The fall upturn in the labor market is largely absent this year.“ There are to this day (20 November) no new figures on German insolvency filings which had increased 17 times in a row until: After 3.1% in May, 13.9% in June, 23.8% in July, 13.8% in August, 19.5% in September, 22.4% in October, 18,8% in November and 12.3% in December 2023, 26.2% in January, 18.1% in February, 12.3% in March, 28.5% in April, 25.9% in May, a „mere“ 6.3% in June, 13.5% in July, 10.7% in August and 13.7% in September 2024 (all YoY; cf. my then most recent comment, here, in German). I will hopefully be able to add these figures at a later stage.
The leading German sentiment indicators, were, all in sync: The German (Industrial) Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) gained 2.4 points and stood at 43.0 points on 4 November 2024. Also, the ZEW Indicator for business expectations gained 9.5% points and rose to 13.1 points in October 2024. Also, the ifo Business Climate Index gained 1.1 points and ended at 86.5 points in October 2024. Finally, the GfK-consumer index, also recovered slightly and increased by 0.2 points to 21.0 points in October 2024.
To sum up: The German economy – not doing so bad, after all? Looking at the sentiment indices, there seems to be some hope at least and probably the hard KPI (whose data lag behind) will mirror the better sentiment in a month’s time. However, this is the time when German economy usually booms („Herbstaufschwung“, „autumn boom“) – and this years boom definitely lacks the dynamic of former years. Hence, it will probably help for a softer landing of the German economy, but it should not be taken as a sign of an overall recovering economy. Too deep are the structural damges (inflicted by Mrs. Merkel, as The Economist suggests (here, comment here, in German)?), the processes of „degrowth“ and „de-industrialisation“ are running through the German economy (cf. here and here for comments, in German). And if the inflation should indeed raise its ugly head again, consumer confidence will melt away soon (and Mr. Fratzscher, here, in German, is not really helping when promoting a 4%-inflation target). Hence, the current partial upswing in the economy should be seen as proof to the proverbial „nothing goes to heck in a straight line“.
Not too surprising: German IFO index stagnates
Today, the IFO-institute stated that
„The Ifo Business Climate Index for German industry and trade dropped to 106.6 points in April from 106.7 points in March. Although companies were somewhat less satisfied with their current situation, their business expectations brightened once again.“
This is not too surprising (for Germans, but probably for everyone else), since the German economy seems to be a little decoupled from the rest of the world economy for some time now: With an unemployment rate of 6.5% in March 2016, Germany shows a robust job-market, even if experts do not see a further decline for the rest of the year due to the refugees now flowing into the job market. Also, the German economy shows a robust if small growth (at least compared to other countries), with now a projected growth rate of about or above 1.5% for 2016. „Not too surprising: German IFO index stagnates“ weiterlesen
Ja watt denn nu? Ist Deutschland korrupt oder nicht?
Die Medien scheinen sich ja in ihrer Bewertung nicht ganz so einig zu sein: Bezüglich ein und derselben Studie von EY überschrieb Businessinsider die Meldung mit „Korruption und Betrug: Deutschland ist unter den Ländern mit der höchsten Wirtschaftskriminalität“, während die Deutsche Welle titelte: „Weniger Fälle von Korruption in Deutschland“. Die Studie (die auf Umfragen von Unternehmen beruht) selber kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Anzahl der Korruptionsfälle in Deutschland sinkt, aber die Anzahl der unternehmensinternen Bestrafungen zunimmt. „Ja watt denn nu? Ist Deutschland korrupt oder nicht?“ weiterlesen
Banken – Crisis? What Crisis?
Anfang April merkten die Blogger (die Main-Stream-Medien wieder einmal weniger) weltweit auf, denn ein Banken-Krisentreffen jagte das nächste! Eine mögliche Erklärung für die ungewöhnliche Hektik war zunächst die Kritik der Fed am „Testament“ von JP Morgan – also den Regelungen im Fall einer notwendigen Abwicklung. „Banken – Crisis? What Crisis?“ weiterlesen
…und China erst!….
Vielleicht ist doch nicht alles so schlecht, wie bislang befürchtet, denn die chinesische Wirtschaft wuchs im ersten Quartal um (exakt die prognostizierten) 6,7 % (auf annualisierter Basis). Damit hätten die Perma-Bears, die einen Absturz der chinesischen Wirtschaft vorhergesagt haben, Unrecht gehabt (ich damit auch…). Was u.U. auch für eine anziehende Konjunktur in China spricht, sind die steigenden Stahlpreise und auch der seit Februar ebenfalls steil ansteigende Baltic Dry Index – der hier also möglicherweise doch ein tauglicher Konjunktur-Frühindikator gewesen wäre. „…und China erst!….“ weiterlesen
Aber in Deutschland ist alles super, oder?
Deutschland steht derzeit super da. Selbst wenn zunächst der Sachverständigenrat der Bundesregierung seine Wachstumsprognose für 2016 leicht von 1,6 auf 1,5% nach unten korrigiert hat und diesem Trend folgend auch die führenden Forschungsinstitute in ihrer „Gemeinschaftsdiagnose“ mit einer Abschwächung von 1,8% auf 1,6% grundsätzlich gefolgt sind, dürfte die deutsche Wirtschaft in 2016 komfortabel wachsen. „Aber in Deutschland ist alles super, oder?“ weiterlesen
Mir wird mulmig zu Mute…
Innerhalb weniger Tage haben drei erfolgreiche und nicht gerade als „Perma-Bulls“ (also notorische Schwarzseher) verschriene Investmentmanager das drohende Ende der Welt beschworen, wie wir sie kennen: Charlie Munger (der Kompagnon von Warren Buffet), El Erian (ex-PIMCO) und Larry Fink (CEO of Blackrock). „Mir wird mulmig zu Mute…“ weiterlesen
China fällt auf die Schn****!
Endlich fällt das „R“-Wort! Ich konnte es kaum glauben, wie sang- und klanglos die Medien über den Ex- und Importeinbruch der chinesischen Volkswirtschaft im Januar und Februar hinweggegangen sind. „China fällt auf die Schn****!“ weiterlesen
Was geschah am 13. April 1876?
Heute genau heute vor 140 Jahren erklärte das Osmanische Reich, das gerade die Tanzimat-Periode mit tiefgreifenden Reformen durchlief, den Staatsbankrott.
Baltic Dry Index soars – Chinese Containerized Freight Index crashes – who can make sense out of this?
As already previously discussed, the Baltic Dry Index soars – rather uninterrupted since 11 February. On Friday, 9 April it reached 539 points – an increase of more than 85% in less than two months. However, the Chinese Containerized Freight Index further crashed to 640.27 on Friday thus widening the „spread“ between the two indices to a new record. „Baltic Dry Index soars – Chinese Containerized Freight Index crashes – who can make sense out of this?“ weiterlesen
Medienmacht – was ist dran am Vorwurf der „Lügenpresse“?
Nicht erst seit der (scheinbar bewusst) verzögerten Berichterstattung über die Vorfälle in der Silvesternacht in Köln hat die AfD mit Ihrem Vorwurf der „Lügenpresse“ Oberwasser (googeln Sie mal „Unabhängigkeit der Medien„!). Aber wie wichtig sind unabhängige Medien und was ist tatsächlich dran am Vorwurf, dass die Medien gesteuert und manipuliert seien? „Medienmacht – was ist dran am Vorwurf der „Lügenpresse“?“ weiterlesen