{"id":25422,"date":"2025-08-27T00:27:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T00:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25422\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T00:27:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T00:27:15","slug":"business-confidence-surges-in-germany-but-fears-driven-by-absence-of-growth-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25422\/","title":{"rendered":"Business confidence surges in Germany but fears driven by absence of growth \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany<\/a>\u2019s key IFO index suggests that business confidence has reached a 15-month high, but growth in Europe<\/a>\u2019s largest economy remains stubbornly flat \u2013 with worrying signs building in its key automotive industry.<\/p>\n

Morale among German managers quizzed by Munich\u2019s IFO Institute rose to 89 points in August, its highest value since May 2024, with their current situation viewed as weaker than future prospects.<\/p>\n

IFO president Clemens Fuest said the recovery of the German economy remains \u201cweak\u201d but that firms were \u201cexpecting that there will be [fresh] impulses in the autumn and next year\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other analysts are less optimistic, pointing to a further 0.3 percentage point shrink in the economy in the second quarter and growing signs of structural osteoporosis in the automotive industry that drives the German economy.<\/p>\n

Squeezed by Chinese competition, US president Donald Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a> and lower orders and sales, a once-booming industry is now characterised by bleak announcements and job losses.<\/p>\n

Luxury carmaker Porsche<\/a> has announced the cancellation of expansion plans at its high-performance Cellforce battery subsidiary, letting go around two-thirds of the 300-strong workforce.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Germany loosens the purse strings in spite of recessionOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cPorsche is not pursuing its own battery cell production for reasons of volume and lack of economies of scale,\u201d said Oliver Blume, chief executive of both Porsche and its majority shareholder, Volkswagen.<\/p>\n

After Porsche came news that leading supplier Schaeffler is closing one factory and shrinking another, with nearly 800 jobs lost in total. The job losses are part of Schaeffler rescue plans to cut 4,700 jobs worldwide, 80 per cent of which will be lost in its home German market.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gerstungen, another of Germany\u2019s leading automobile industry suppliers, announced its 600 workers faced an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

\"\"Why is Ireland not considered a truly rich country?<\/p>\n

The company, which specialises in cast alumninium parts for bodywork, transmissions and engines, entered administration in February 2024 and already cut around 400 jobs. Administrator Romy Metzger said on Monday that none of nearly 150 firms contacted were interested in investing, making \u201cthings look at the moment more like the end rather than a happy ending\u201d.<\/p>\n

Summing up the outlook on Tuesday, Germany\u2019s Automobilwoche trade paper announced: \u201cThings are going to get unpleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, a survey of auto market suppliers found 79 per cent gauged the current situation as bad or very bad, while two-thirds expected a drastic correction in their industry in the coming two years.<\/p>\n

One in two viewed their Chinese competitors as now having \u201ca competitive advantage that can no longer be caught up with\u201d.<\/p>\n

Consulting firm Berylls concluded in its report that \u201c2025 will be as critical to suppliers\u2019 existence as the pandemic crisis\u201d, with squeezed margins increasing the risk of insolvency.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tariffs an unwelcome shock to a German economy already battling an exports slowdownOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Already, talks are under way between leading automobile suppliers with players in Germany\u2019s booming defence industry, with a view to pivoting from civil toward military production.<\/p>\n

Defence company Hensoldt, which manufactures sensors for surveillance missions, has already spoken openly of how its firm might \u201cbenefit from the difficulties in the automotive sector\u201d. <\/p>\n

In February, struggling train company Alstom announced that an eastern German factory would be taken over by defence firm KNDS to produce components and modules for tanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s key IFO index suggests that business confidence has reached a 15-month high, but growth in Europe\u2019s largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[79,356,179,18,19,17,21095,1411],"class_list":{"0":"post-25422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-porsche","15":"tag-us-tariffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}