“Germany is struggling. It was the only G7 economy to shrink last year and is set to be the group’s slowest-growing economy again this year.” These are the opening words of a blog by members of the IMF’s European Department published on March 27. According to the IMF, its GDP per head shrank 1 per cent between 2019 and 2023. This was the 34th-worst outcome out of 41 high-income economies. Of G7 economies, only Canada did worse. Even the UK, with a decline of 0.2 per cent, and France, with a small rise of 0.4 per cent, did better. The US rise of 6 per cent was in another league.
“德國正在苦苦掙扎。它是去年七國集團(G7)中唯一一個經濟萎縮的經濟體，今年勢必又將是七國集團中增長最慢的經濟體。”這是國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)歐洲部(European Department)幾位經濟學家3月27日發表的一篇博文的開場白。根據IMF的數據，2019年至2023年，德國人均國內生產總值(GDP)萎縮了1%。這個數字在41個高收入經濟體中排第34位。在G7經濟體中，只有加拿大的情況比德國更糟。就連英國（萎縮0.2%）和法國（微增0.4%）的表現也比德國好。人均GDP增長6%的美國跟德國干脆不在同一個級別。