7th CompNet Annual Conference
Economic Growth, Trade and Productivity Dispersion 7 th CompNet Annual Conference, June 21-22, 2018, Leopoldina, Halle (Saale), Germany The main target of this conference was to…
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Past Events
Past Events 14. CompNet Annual Conference (Vilnius, 25-26 September 2025) The 14th CompNet Annual Conference, co-hosted with the Bank of Lithuania, took place on 25–26 September…
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6th vintage
6th Vintage CompNet Dataset CompNet has created a competitiveness indicator dataset including a number of European countries. The dataset is unique in terms of its coverage and…
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7th vintage
7th Vintage CompNet Dataset The CompNet dataset includes a set of micro-aggregated indicators to enhance policy and academic analysis on competitiveness and productivity. All the…
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4th and 5th vintage
4th and 5th Vintage CompNet Dataset In 2015-2016 The Competitiveness Research Network released to the public respectively the 4th & 5th Vintage of its aggregated micro-based…
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10.04.2025 • 13/2025
Joint Economic Forecast 1/2025: Geopolitical turn intensifies crisis – structural reforms even more urgent
The German economy will continue to tread water in 2025. In their spring report, the leading economic research institutes forecast an increase in gross domestic product of just 0.1% for the current year. For 2026, the institutes expect gross domestic product to increase by 1.3%. In the short term, the new US trade policy and economic policy uncertainty are weighing on the German economy. The additional scope for public debt should gradually have an expansionary effect, but threatens to crowd out private consumption and private investment.
Oliver Holtemöller
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13.03.2025 • 10/2025
A turning point for the German economy?
The international political environment has fundamentally changed with looming trade wars and a deteriorating security situation in Europe. The leading parties in Germany are setting the stage for debt-financed additional defence tasks with far-reaching changes to the debt brake. This entails major risks for the German economy, but also opportunities. Meanwhile, the economy continues to be in a downturn. According to the spring forecast of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 is likely to be roughly the same as in the previous year, and it will not increase significantly until 2026, partly because uncertainty about German economic policy is likely to decrease after the new government is established, meaning that the savings rate of private households will fall again somewhat and the debt-financed additional government spending will gradually have an impact on demand. The IWH economists are forecasting an increase in GDP of 0.1% for 2025. In December, they were still forecasting growth of 0.4% for 2025. The outlook is similar for East Germany, where production is likely to have increased slightly in 2024, unlike in Germany as a whole.
Oliver Holtemöller
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Do Euro Area Banks Adjust Their Foreign Real Estate Backed Lending in a Low Interest Rate Environment?
Kirsten Schmidt, Lena Tonzer
SUERF Policy Brief,
February
2025
Abstract
Banks have been operating in a low interest rate environment paired with booming housing markets. For the largest banks in the euro area and the period 2015-2022, we assess whether banks reallocate their foreign loan portfolio backed by real estate as a response to differences in local lending spreads across the home and destination country and conditional on reduced information frictions due to borrowing-country exposures. The main result is that the relative share of foreign real estate backed lending increases in case of return opportunities, and this sensitivity depends on local exposures towards the borrowing country. The result is driven by subsamples for which neither the home nor the borrowing country have implemented macroprudential regulation targeting real estate lending, or for which there is a misalignment in macroprudential policies. Nevertheless, we find limited evidence that the riskiness of real estate backed loans goes up during our sample period, and we discuss potential reasons for this result including the possibility of hidden losses.
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Aktuelle Trends: Die Bedeutung von Banken zur Verteilung von Subventionen
Aleksandr Kazakov, Michael Koetter
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 4,
2024
Abstract
Seit 1990 wurden im Rahmen der „Gemeinschaftsaufgabe Verbesserung der regionalen Wirtschaftsstruktur“ (GRW) rund 68 Milliarden Euro an Unternehmen in strukturschwachen Regionen in Ost- und Westdeutschland vergeben. Dieser Beitrag verdeutlicht die Rolle der Banken dabei und zeigt erhebliche räumliche Unterschiede bei den Subventionen.
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05.09.2024 • 24/2024
Moderate economic growth in the world – German economy continues to stagnate
Production in Germany has been stagnating for two years and is roughly the same level as shortly before the outbreak of the pandemic. Investment of firms is particularly weak. An important reason for fewer investments is the sluggish export business. Private households are also holding back on consumption, mainly due to concerns about the longer-term economic outlook. According to the autumn forecast of the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), gross domestic product in Germany is likely to stagnate in 2024 and to increase by 1.0% in 2025 as capacity utilisation normalises. In June, the IWH forecast had still assumed a growth of 0.3% in 2024 and of 1.5% in 2025. In East Germany, gross domestic product will increase by 0.3% this year and by 0.9% in 2025.
Oliver Holtemöller
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