00:00Why is Germany's economy in such a bad shape, and what will it take to get things going again?
00:07Chancellor Olaf Scholz will face tough questions like these at Tuesday's Industry Summit in the Chancellery,
00:15where he'll meet business leaders, employers and union representatives.
00:20The summit aims to address mounting concerns over the country's economic stagnation
00:25and to look for solutions to obvious structural problems.
00:30We systematically did not invest enough in our infrastructure,
00:34which can be seen with delayed trains and collapsing bridges,
00:37the lack of digitalization across administrations.
00:41We have not done enough to mobilize the potential of skilled workers,
00:45both on the domestic job market and in terms of the employment of women.
00:49According to IMF predictions for this year, and combined with the German economy ministry's forecast,
00:55here is how Germany is expected to stack up against the US, China, Japan and India projections.
01:01Yet again, it's expected to be the only economy to contract.
01:05Germany is very much exposed to rising energy prices,
01:09so the energy intensive industry like the chemical industry is strong in Germany.
01:13Then we have issues in the car industry, the transition towards electric mobility,
01:18the growing importance of IT, the difficulties in the Chinese markets.
01:24All of that is making life difficult for the car industry.
01:30Just a day before the Chancellor's Industry Summit,
01:33the country's giant carmaker Volkswagen's plans to substantially shrink its operations in Germany were made public.
01:41Europe's biggest car producer is planning to shut at least three factories in Germany,
01:46lay off tens of thousands of staff and permanently shrink its remaining plants in Germany.
01:53The cracks in Europe's biggest economy are deepening,
01:56and businesses want something to be done by the government soon.
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