VOA News | Monday, October 23, 2023 
Populist Left Leader Moves to Launch New German Party 

Frankfurt — The German economy shrank slightly in 2023, official data showed Monday, as costly energy, high interest rates and cooling foreign demand took their toll on Europe’s export giant. Output contracted by 0.3 percent year-on-year, federal statistics agency Destatis said in preliminary figures. “Overall economic development faltered in Germany in 2023 in an environment that continues to be marked by multiple crises,” the agency’s Ruth Brand told a Berlin press conference. Europe’s largest economy likely saw a 0.3-percent drop in gross domestic output in the final quarter of the year, the agency calculated, again in preliminary figures. It also revised the data for the third quarter from a 0.1-percent contraction to a stagnation, meaning Germany avoided a year-end technical recession of two successive quarters of negative growth. The German economy has faced severe headwinds since Russia’s war in Ukraine sent inflation, particularly the cost of energy, soaring. The price spikes contributed to a steep downturn in Germany’s energy-hungry manufacturing sector, while the construction sector also took a hit…Read more