Zero growth forecast for Germany

German economic growth will show a revised shrinking towards zero for the second quarter of the year, due to the Ukraine crisis and the tough new economic sanctions imposed on Russia — going down from 0.8% in the first quarter — the head of the Munich-based Ifo institute said at the weekend.

The think-tank’s president Hans-Werner Sinn wrote a guest column for Wirtschaftswoche magazine in which he said the worsening crisis meant forecasts that Europe’s largest economy would expand by 0.3% in the second quarter have to be revised down.

“It looks like there will be a longer break in the economic upturn that began in the second half of last year and continued through the winter months,” wrote Mr Sinn, one of Germany’s most high-profile economists.