Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) met with leading German business associations on Wednesday. The German economy is “facing major structural challenges,” explained the representatives of the leading associations in a press release at the beginning of March.
“Everything continues to bounce off the Chancellor,’ said one of the business representatives, according to the Handelsblatt newspaper. The meeting with CDU chairman Friedrich Merz lasted 90 minutes, but there were no concrete commitments, says the Handelblatt. The associations criticized the Union for blocking the Growth Opportunities Act in the Federal Council for too long, writes the Ifo Institute's spring forecast for the German economy at the start of the year. The Ifo says the economy will only increase by 0.2 percent this year, compared to the previous forecast of 0.4 percent.. Representatives of theleading associations had invited ScholZ to talks. These had little effect - unlike the meeting with Friedrich MerZ.