The German economy has been stagnating for three years, now. In the first quarter of 2003, real GDP even fell, with an annual rate of 0.9 percent. It had decreased also in the quarter before and the underutilization of capacities has meanwhile become significant, although capacity utilization is...

The German economy stagnated in 2002. Real GDP only increased by 0.2 percent, even less than in 2001 (0.6 percent). In the fourth quarter of 2002, aggregate production fell slightly. Consumer spending stagnated as a result of virtually constant real disposable income and the losses in financial...