German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks at the annual congress of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations in Berlin. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesAt the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations gathering in Berlin, Mr Scholz insisted his government was delivering and urged managers to avoid a self-fulfilling gloom prophecy.
“Inflation, rising interest rates, geopolitical conflicts, strained supply chains – as an industrialised and export-oriented country, we have been hit harder than others,” he said. “The economy is shrinking, unemployment is rising, Germany has lost attractiveness for investors,” said Mr Dulger, noting Germany was the second most expensive country to do business in a recent survey of 45 industrial economies.
“I know,” Mr Scholz told the silent rows of managers, “that we are not always of the same opinion here.”