European Economic Comment "Germany: Macro takeaways from UBS Frankfurt ..."

Research evidence excerpt

European Economic Comment "Germany: Macro takeaways from UBS Frankfurt ..."

Global Research

21 May 2026ab

European Economic Comment Economics

Europe including UKGermany: Macro takeaways from UBS Frankfurt

conference Felix Huefner

Economist

felix.huefner@ubs.com

+49-69-1369 8280

UBS Investing in Europe conference in Frankfurt Reinhard Cluse

UBS hosted a two-day conference, Investing in Europe, in Frankfurt on 18/19 May (see Economist

agenda). The German macro story was debated intensely in panels and group lunches reinhard.cluse@ubs.com

+44-20-7568 6722

with academics, market participants and former politicians. Discussions focused on the

question of whether or not the German economy would start growing again more Franziska Fischer

dynamically after years of underperforming the Eurozone, on the role of fiscal policy, the Economist

political backdrop and on key signposts for the future. franziska.fischer@ubs.com

+41-44-239 2054

German underperformance since 2019 Anna Titareva

EconomistSince the start of this decade, German GDP has grown by only 0.8%. During the same

anna.titareva@ubs.com

time, Eurozone GDP has grown 7%. This is a marked contrast to 2010-19 when +44-20-7568 5083

Germany substantially outperformed the Eurozone (at 21% vs 15%), helped by the

lagged impact of substantial structural reforms in the early 2000s (Figure 1 and 2). Can

Germany reverse this trend over the coming years? Most conference participants

appeared sceptical: When we asked the audience during the opening macro panel

whether Germany would move "from growth laggard to growth leader" in the

Eurozone over the remainder of this decade, only five out of 105 participants thought

this was likely. It was noted, though, that international investors often hold a somewhat