...the stakes seem higher as the world is riven by trade conflicts and as value moves from old-school engineering—Germany’s traditional strength—to digital technologies.
The country’s export-focused industrial base, the motor of its growth, today is becoming a disadvantage. Faced with the challenges posed by Donald Trump’s America First protectionism and China’s slowdown, the country is at greater risk than, say, neighboring France, because of Germany’s greater reliance on selling manufactured goods.
The longer term challenges may be even more vexing. Transport infrastructure is crumbling, data networks are patchy, the population will start shrinking in the coming decade, and the crucial auto industry risks getting sidelined by the emergence of self-driving electric cars.
...growth this year is forecast to be the weakest since 2013—spurring the government to propose a national industrial policy for the first time in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 14 years in power.
...defending German leadership in key sectors like metals and machinery, and investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence, which the report calls likely the most important development since the steam engine.
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