Preliminary data from the Federal Statistics Office showed that Germany’s economy contracted less than expected at 5% in 2020, as the country’s strong response contributed to limiting the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in Europe’s largest economy.
The drop in gross domestic product, below Reuters’s forecast of a 5.1% decline, is less severe than the record contraction of 5.7% that Germany suffered in 2009 during the global financial crisis.