On Thursday, the Ifo economic institute announced its increased on 2018 economic growth outlook for Germany to 1.9 percent versus 1.8 percent in the previous, indicating a better-than-expected growth during the first half of the year. Ifo economist Timo Wollmershauser stated that there is an ongoing strong upswing in the German economy, which will be mainly driven by personal consumption for the current year and in 2019. He added that this will be supported by the employment expansion and stable income growth. The Ifo expects that the GDP growth rates will reach 1.9 percent next year and 1.7 percent in 2020.
