German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Tuesday that he believed the country would experience a light recession in 2023, but that he felt positive about his country’s economic outlook.
“We still need to deal with high uncertainty, but I feel the economic outlook is improving,” Lindner told CNBC’s Geoff Cutmore in an interview in Davos on the World Economic Forum.
He added that he felt more positive about 2023 and 2024 than simply just a few months ago.
“There’s a possibility to see faster economic recovery and faster decline in inflation rates than expected,” Lindner said.
Earlier this month, the country’s inflation reading for December got here back lower than expected because it declined to 9.6%.
Lindner said he expected a “very mild” recession, but in addition believed the Germany economy was resilient. This included its broader industry in addition to medium-sized corporations, he explained.
“The German economy has been able to scale back the gas consumption by greater than 20% without reducing the production so this shows we’re resilient,” the finance minister said, addressing pressures that Europe’s economies have been facing because the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis.
He said the German government was now focused on “strengthening the competitiveness” of its economy.
