Merkel is accused of having “seriously injured” the German economy by following the EU | Politics | news

The criticism came after an influential business climate index showed that confidence in German business expectations fell sharply in August. The business climate index of the Ifo Institute in Munich collapsed to 99.4 in August, from 100.8 in the previous month. It was the second straight month that the rating had fallen after a series of steady improvements since early 2021.

The high-ranking AfD politician Gunnar Beck, a German MP, told Express.co.uk: “Germany’s long-term ban has harmed people and companies. By following the EU’s flawed model, Angela Merkel has disrupted supply chains and seriously damaged the economy.

“In the three major crises that the EU has faced – be it Covid, the euro or immigration – the EU has failed every time.

“It seems that the EU no longer has any problems. It’s the problem. “

The Ifo Institute’s index was particularly impacted by business expectations for the next six months.

Many companies have raised concerns about supply chain disruptions and the possible flare-up of COVID-190 infections in the eurozone’s largest economy.

Clemens Fuest, President of the Ifo Institute, said: “Delivery bottlenecks for preliminary products in production and worries about increasing numbers of infections are burdening the economy.”

He added that “there is growing concern in the hospitality and tourism industries” because of the threat of future lockdowns to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.

Carsten Brzeski, ING’s global head of macro, said the data, when analyzed in line with Germany’s weakened Zew sentiment index and similar polls, suggests a “loss of Germany in the second half of the year”.

He added, “If hard data follows the flattening of the soft indicators, the return of the economy to pre-crisis levels will be delayed.”

Andrew Kenningham, Chief Economist for Europe at Capital Economics, was less relaxed.

He said the data indicated that the German economy was “still buoyant” and predicted “very strong” GDP growth of around three percent in the third quarter of this year from the three months before.

The German economy grew by 1.6 percent in the second quarter.

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This is the fastest pace since World War II and should only be achieved by the US.

Gita Gopinath, chief economist at the IMF, said: “There was a time when there were restrictions that were slowly being relaxed, but there was greater adaptability to those restrictions and we saw economic activity returning a little more than we expected .

“And the UK vaccines are going very strong, that is helping the recovery, it will be a big plus.”

The UK’s growth is expected to outperform the EU’s eurozone, which according to the IMF will grow 4.6 percent this year.