German growth to fall to 1.5pc: minister

Germany's economic growth could fall to 1.4 per cent-1.5 per cent this year, from 2.7 per cent in 2021, with an average of around 590,000 people on reduced-hours lay-off schemes over the course of the year, Labour Minister Hubertus Heil said in an interview with Bild am Sonntag.

"We will still be growing," Heil said. "But this all subject to the proviso that the war does not spread further and that energy supply remains in place," he added.