Germany hit by 'pronounced slowdown': economist

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2008

BERLIN (AFP) — Germany's economy is undergoing a "pronounced slowdown" that could drag on to 2010, the chief economist at Deutsche Bank, Norbert Walter, said in an interview released Saturday.

Recession could be averted with "happy accidents" such as a fall in energy and food prices, an improved economic outlook in the United States or a rebound of the US dollar, he told the Euro am Sonntag business weekly.

"But I don't consider any of these eventualities plausible," Walter said. "We are in a period of a pronounced slowdown (that will probably) last until 2010."

He added that a political effort by Berlin to perk up Europe's biggest economy would likely have "very little impact".

Germany's economy contracted 0.5 percent in the second quarter of 2008,...