German Industry Calls For Incentives As National Economy Slumps

German Industry Calls for Incentives as National Economy Slumps

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2019) Joachim Lang, the head of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), on Wednesday urged the government to rethink its strategy and provide more stimuli to business after the economy shrank.

Federal statistics for the second quarter of 2019 showed growth fell by 0.1 percent compared to the previous quarter, bringing the annual growth rate down to 0.4 percent.

"The Federal and regional [governments] must agree on waivers and incentives for investment activities � namely to the tune of some 15 billion Euros to 20 billion euros [$16.8 billion-$22.4 billion] a year starting in 2020," Lang wrote in an op-ed for the Handelsblatt newspaper.

He said the government was "caught off guard" by the economy's return to negative growth, the first such slip in four years, and predicted "dark months ahead of us, which threaten to become years if there is no turnaround."