Germany Economy

The German economy shrank 0.4% in the final quarter of 1998, according to official statistics, but analysts backed a government forecast for a modest upturn this year. The Federal Statistics Office blamed weakening exports for the quarter-on-quarter decline and said domestic demand was the economy's sole driving force at the end of last year. The office also said year-on-year growth slowed to 2.5% in the fourth quarter from 2.8% in the third. It confirmed the full-year 1998 growth rate at 2.8%.

A need for speed? Re "LAPD targets costly crashes," Jan. 23 I live in Boyle Heights, around the corner from the NASCAR wannabes at the Los Angeles Police Department's Hollenbeck station. On any given day, several squad cars shoot up or down the street, often without lights or sirens. I have spoken with the watch commander on two occasions, but apparently every 911 call is truly a life-or-death situation worth risking the lives of bicyclists or motorists turning from side streets, unaware that the Millennium Falcon is bearing down on them at warp speed.

Nearly 18 months after achieving their dream of unification, the Germans face a series of economic problems that look more like a nightmare than the results of a wish come true. While experts remain convinced that unity and the collapse of communism in Europe will eventually increase Germany's economic might, the Continent's industrial giant is suffering a collection of interim ills.

  If Berlin's Alexa shopping center is any indication, Germany is having a very good crisis. While the rest of Europe enacts crippling austerity measures to soothe nervous creditors and bring down dangerously high interest rates, shoppers continue to pour out of Alexa's doors with bags full of presents to sip mulled wine in the cheery Christmas market outside. Fenja Kothe, a social worker juggling three shopping bags, said she and her countrymen felt no need to cut back on their purchases this holiday season.

More than 85,000 demonstrators, many shouting anti-government slogans, took to the streets of Berlin, Dresden and smaller cities to protest economic misery in the former East Germany. "Kohl must go!" some protesters yelled, referring to Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who they charge has failed to keep election promises to rapidly improve living conditions. The biggest demonstration was in Leipzig, with as many as 80,000 people.

"He came, sat and stayed." With ironic understatement, the cover headline on a German magazine sums up the career no one ever seemed to believe Helmut Kohl would have. Often painted by his critics as an uncouth, inarticulate bumbler, Kohl has daunted them all by securing his place in history books as the chancellor of German unification and a leading figure in international politics. "I've made a career out of being underestimated," he is fond of saying.

No Growth Seen in Western Germany's Economy: The German government's independent Council of Economic Advisers expects the west German economy to show zero growth in 1993, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported. The newspaper obtained an advance copy of the annual report by the council, which is due to be presented to Chancellor Helmut Kohl today.

Germany's central bank is raising interest rates to a nine-year high, determined to defend its currency and fight the threat of mounting inflation. The Bundesbank's discount lending rate will go up today to 7.5% from 6.5%, Bundesbank President Helmut Schlesinger said. "The wave of price rises now rolling into Germany must ebb," he told reporters in Frankfurt on Thursday after a meeting of the bank's policy-making council. He urged unions and the government to help keep prices under control.

Shaking confidence in Europe's ability to stave off recession, Germany's leading economic institute nearly halved its growth forecast for the country Tuesday and said the region's biggest economy has yet to hit bottom. The German economy is expected to limp along at 1.2% this year, the Ifo Institute said in slashing its earlier prediction for 2.1% growth. That's down sharply from 3% growth in 2000.

New data released Wednesday show that Germany's economy contracted for the second straight quarter, bordering on a recession, and the bad news could pressure politicians to resolve differences over a $32-billion austerity package. German gross domestic product fell by half a percentage point in the first quarter of 1996, its worst performance in three years.

Just a few months ago, every car that auto worker Thomas Ortloff expertly painted was one closer to the record number expected to roll off the Opel assembly lines this year. Vacation time seemed a laughable idea. But Ortloff and his colleagues have just wrapped up a long holiday they neither anticipated nor wanted. Amid a global financial panic and a sudden slump in demand, managers at this General Motors Corp.

It's been a dispiriting and, at times, titillating summer of scandal: Prostitutes on expense accounts, a home built for a lover on the Spanish coast, a bribe here, a kickback there, rich men wearing tans and sheepish grins, tabloid headlines, resignations and, every now and then, shame.

Germany's economy, Europe's largest, barely grew in the third quarter, data reported Monday show. And experts said there's little sign of improvement so far this quarter. That could force the European Central Bank to cut interest rates soon, some analysts said. The bank has been balking at making further cuts because of inflation worries in countries including Spain and Ireland. German gross domestic product rose 0.

Temple City (11-0) at Inglewood (9-2), 7:30 p.m.--Top-seeded Temple City will have its hands full in this game, which could easily pass for the Division X championship game. Inglewood, the division runner-up last season, lost twice in Ocean League games by a total of two points and that dropped them to third place, but this is no ordinary third-place team. A deceptive running attack and offensive line led by brothers Keith and Lawrence Jackson has utilized 12 ballcarriers and has gained nearly 4,000 yards.

With rising auto sales providing a rare glimmer of hope on Europe's gloomy economic horizon, Volkswagen sparked jubilation when it offered to hire 5,000 workers from among the long-term unemployed and pay them each 5,000 marks a month. Thousands from among Germany's nearly 3.85 million jobless--about 9% of the work force--flocked to company headquarters in Wolfsburg the next day to build a new minivan model for the equivalent monthly pay of about $2,270.

In fighting form as he heads into an election year, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Thursday trumpeted his accomplishments of the last three years in boosting Germany's international profile, transforming attitudes toward immigration and improving the economy--even if less dramatically than expected.

German unemployment rose to a postwar record of 4.04 million in February, climbing toward the jobless levels that helped bring Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to power in 1933. The Federal Labor Office announcement Tuesday of a 10.5% jobless rate bodes poorly for Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his center-right Christian Democratic Union in this year of 19 state and federal elections. The country will vote for a new Parliament and chancellor in October.

Economics Minister Guenter Rexrodt delivered a gloomy assessment of Germany's short-term economic prospects on Wednesday, predicting zero growth this year as the country struggles to overcome the effects of a global slowdown and the task of rebuilding the formerly Communist east. "Growth has come to a standstill," Rexrodt said at a news conference here in which he presented the government's annual economic report. "Almost all the important indicators are going in the wrong direction."

Shaking confidence in Europe's ability to stave off recession, Germany's leading economic institute nearly halved its growth forecast for the country Tuesday and said the region's biggest economy has yet to hit bottom. The German economy is expected to limp along at 1.2% this year, the Ifo Institute said in slashing its earlier prediction for 2.1% growth. That's down sharply from 3% growth in 2000.