(24 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin, Germany – 24 April 2025
1. Outgoing German Minister of Economy Robert Habeck enters the news conference room
2. Close of Habeck
3. Habeck sitting down
4. Wide news conference
5. SOUNDBITE (German) Robert Habeck, outgoing German Minister of Economy and Climate:
"And as we already know, we will have to lower the forecast again by 0.3% for 2025 to 0.0. So that means stagnation, let’s say, for this year. For 2026, we are lowering the forecast from 1.1% to 1%."
6. Journalists
7. Habeck presenting chart
8. Journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (German) Robert Habeck, outgoing German Minister of Economy and Climate:
"The main reason is that the US trade policy, the threat and the imposition of tariffs have a direct impact on the German economy, which is very export-oriented, and also indirectly on the German economy, because the world markets are nervous and the barriers for importers and exporters primarily affect the export-oriented German economy."
10. Habeck at news conference
11. Robert Habeck presenting chart
12. Laptop with pictures of Habeck
13. Wide news conference
14. SOUNDBITE (German) Robert Habeck, outgoing German Minister of Economy and Climate:
"Trade balances can be an important indicator of how competitive situations are shifting and sometimes shifting unfairly. So, with China, for example, it’s worth taking a look at the trade balance. And you can see that something is happening in China. So this is an important economic indicator that can also provide indications that political countermeasures need to be taken, or that, in case of doubt, tariffs need to be imposed. The idea that all countries must have balanced trade balances with each other, which is what Trump is saying, is a perversion of this idea. Why should the USA and Venezuela have a balanced trade balance? Why should Germany have a balance of trade with, I don’t want to say, Luxembourg, but I don’t know, with Algeria? That’s nonsense. So where does that come from? And it’s also completely nonsense if Canadians sell timber to the USA, the USA sells gas to the world, and Europe sells cars to the USA. Why should that end up being a zero-sum game? Where does that come from? Where does this idea come from? So it’s a perversion of what should actually be measured. And so, my first speech would always be to say, don’t buy the narrative. The idea that everything has to be set to zero is simply nonsense. And it also comes from a past world that has been proven nonsensical and wrong."
15. Wide of news conference
STORYLINE:
The German government forecast Thursday that the country’s economy, Europe’s biggest, will stagnate this year as U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade threats weigh on its performance following months of political uncertainty.
Outgoing Economy Minister Robert Habeck said the government cut its 2025 outlook to zero from the modest growth of 0.3% it predicted at the end of January.
For next year, it is forecasting growth of 1%, slightly lower than the 1.1% it predicted three months ago.
"The imposition of tariffs has a direct impact on the German economy, which is very export-oriented,” Habeck told reporters in Berlin.
He noted that Germany also hasn’t had a government with a parliamentary majority to set policy since early November, and the new government isn’t yet in place after an election in February.
Germany hasn’t seen significant economic growth in five years.
The country for years expanded exports and dominated world trade in engineered products like industrial machinery and luxury cars.
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