The Bundesbank assumes that the economy will grow by 1.9% this year. “The economic recovery is therefore likely to continue, but at a much more subdued pace than projected last December,” according to the current edition of the experts’ semi-annual projection. The annual average inflation rate for 2022 is set to rise to 7.1%.

Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel, speaking at an event at Ruhr University Bochum, has called for further interest rate steps. Looking to future developments, he said: “In my view, it is by no means certain that interest rates will reach their peak as early as this summer.” He believes that the German economy is well placed to rise to the challenges ahead, even if it did contract over the past two quarters: “With regard to the remainder of the year, our economists are cautiously optimistic. Things should start to pick up again soon, then.”