Gross domestic product in the eurozone’s largest economy declined 0.2 percent last year, according to preliminary figures from federal statistics agency Destatis, coming after a 0.3 percent contraction in 2023.

Germany’s economy contracted for a second straight year in 2024, underlining the scale of the challenge that will face a new government after elections due in February, including the possibility of fresh tariffs on its exports to the U.

Simply sign up to the German economy myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Germany’s economy shrank for a second straight year in 2024, underlining the severity of the downturn facing Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse.

The Federal Statistical Office said that gross domestic product contracted by 0.2% last year following a decline in 2023. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition government collapsed in November when Scholz fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize the economy.

The German economy contracted by 0.2% in 2024, in the second consecutive year of declines in the annual gross domestic product of Europe's largest economy.

Europe's biggest economy shrank for a second year in a row in 2024, according to data released on Wednesday by the Federal Statistics Office. View on euronews