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Germany faces exports collapse

Tuesday 29 December 1998 00:02 GMT
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GERMANY'S DOLE queues are expected to reduce in 1999, but the outlook for Europe's largest economy remains subdued, the country's leading economic institutes forecast yesterday. "Exports will weaken dramatically," Karl Heinrich Oppenlander, president of the Ifo institute, told the Hamburger Abendblatt.

The institutes said this would be offset by significant growth in domestic demand. Four of think-tanks forecast gross GDP growth of between 1.7 and 2.3 per cent, while a fifth predicted only 1.4 per cent. All expected strong domestic demand to cut unemployment by 200,000 to 300,000, but they said wage demands posed a risk. Werner Muller, the Economics Minister, (pictured) called on the unions to temper wage claims.

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