Merkel sees German recovery accelerating once virus is tamed

Bloomberg

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed optimism that a recovery in Europe’s biggest economy will gather pace once the coronavirus pandemic is brought back under control.
Merkel said that while the situation remains “very serious,” officials are better equipped now to fight the
disease than at the start of the outbreak in the spring. She cited recent progress in developing vaccines as another
positive sign.
“We must bring the numbers down and keep them at a low level,” Merkel said on Tuesday at a Sueddeutsche Zeitung conference. “And if that succeeds — we saw this in the third quarter of this year — then the economic recovery will significantly accelerate.”
Germany’s economy bounced back strongly after a collapse in activity in the spring, but new curbs introduced after a fresh wave of infections are likely to lead to stagnation at best in the final quarter.
That’s despite financial aid for the hardest-hit sectors like hospitality and entertainment.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, speaking immediately after Merkel, said the government is making some 14 billion euros ($16.6 billion) available this month to ease the blow, up from the original allocation of 10 billion euros.
While the latest restrictions are less severe and more focussed on hospitality and leisure activities, Germany’s critical export sector is suffering from a resurgence of the virus across Europe, the Bundesbank said. On balance, it expects the hit to the economy to be smaller than after the lockdown in March and April.