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Traffic on the A8: Fewer trucks
Photo: Arnulf Hettrich / IMAGO
What motorists and environmentalists should be happy about is not a good sign for the economy: truck traffic on the German autobahns fell by 1.4 percent in July, calendar and seasonally adjusted, compared to the previous month, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office.
Compared to the same month last year, the drop was even greater at 1.6 percent.
The statisticians evaluated the mileage of toll trucks with at least four axles on federal motorways.
The development varies regionally: the largest decline in truck toll mileage was in Saxony with a minus of 2.6 percent, followed by Lower Saxony (-2.1 percent), North Rhine-Westphalia (-1.6) and Bavaria (-1.5).
In Rhineland-Palatinate, on the other hand, mileage stagnated, while in Saarland it even grew by 1.4 percent.
Cross-border traffic shrank at all borders in the past month - here the sharpest drop was at the Polish border with 4.2 percent, followed by Switzerland (-3.7) and the Czech Republic (-1.7).
The so-called truck toll mileage index is suitable nationwide and in some federal states as an early indicator for economic development.
"Especially in the industrialized countries there is a clear connection between regional truck toll mileage and regional sales in the manufacturing industry," as the statisticians emphasized.
The German economy had already stopped growing in the spring quarter: the gross domestic product merely stagnated.
Many experts assume that Europe's largest economy could plunge into recession in the second half of the year.
Rising prices, a shortage of materials, an increasingly weak global economy and the uncertainty caused by the Russian war against the Ukraine are having a negative impact on the German economy.
mic/Reuters