{"id":14341,"date":"2026-02-08T09:29:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T10:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/?p=14341"},"modified":"2026-02-10T06:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T06:43:19","slug":"covid-ukraine-and-us-tariffs-cost-germany-1-trn-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/08\/covid-ukraine-and-us-tariffs-cost-germany-1-trn-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Covid, Ukraine and US tariffs cost Germany $1 trn \u2013 study"},"content":{"rendered":"

The crises have paralyzed growth and resulted in a significant GDP shortfall, the German Economic Institute has said<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Germany has lost more than $1 trillion in GDP output over the past six years as successive crises pushed the economy into prolonged stagnation, according to the German Economic Institute (IW).<\/p>\n

A study released on Saturday cited the Covid-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict, and US tariff policies as the main drivers of the losses.<\/p>\n

The IW compared Germany’s pre-crisis 2019 economic trajectory with hypothetical growth absent pandemics and geopolitical shocks against actual real GDP performance from 2020 to 2025.<\/p>\n

The institute estimated the shortfall in price-adjusted GDP over the six-year period at €940 billion ($1.1 trillion). In household terms, this represents income Germany failed to earn, translating into a loss of over €20,000 in added value per employed person.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"German
The German economic report: Talk is cheap, unlike everything else<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Economic losses from 2020 to 2022 totaled €360 billion, largely due to Covid-19 and compounded from early 2022 by the Ukraine conflict, which saw Germany take part in the Western sanctions on Russia and abandon cheap Russian energy, which previously accounted for 55% of its gas imports.<\/p>\n

As the conflict dragged on, losses rose to €140 billion in 2023 and over €200 billion in 2024, when Germany entered back-to-back recessions.<\/p>\n

While 2025 saw minor 0.2% growth, economists described it as a “prolonged period of stagnation.”<\/em> The IW estimated a record €235 billion output loss that year, exacerbated by US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The current decade has so far been characterized by extraordinary shocks and enormous economic adjustment burdens, which now significantly exceed the burden levels of previous crises,”<\/em> IW researcher Michael Groemling stated, adding that the crises have “paralyzed economic development.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Kirill
Merz\u2019s \u2018stupid decisions\u2019 led to Germany\u2019s economic woes \u2013 Putin envoy<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged last year that the economy was in a “structural crisis,”<\/em> but prioritized<\/a> a military buildup, pledging to make the army “Europe’s strongest conventional army”<\/em> amid the perceived ‘Russian threat’ – which Moscow has called “nonsense.”<\/em><\/p>\n

His government abolished the constitutional debt brake to fund the buildup and passed the 2026 budget with a record €108.2 billion for defense and €11.5 billion in military aid for Ukraine. It also committed to raising defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2029 as part of broader NATO-led militarization.<\/p>\n

Merz has blamed<\/a> the work ethic of Germans, the social welfare system, previous government policies, and EU regulatory bodies for the economic slump. His policies<\/a> have driven his approval rating to a record low of 25% this month, down from 38% when he took office in May 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The crises have paralyzed growth and resulted in a significant GDP shortfall, the German Economic Institute has said Germany has lost more than $1 trillion in GDP output over the past six years as successive crises pushed the economy into prolonged stagnation, according to the German Economic Institute (IW). A…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14344,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14341\/revisions\/14344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.globaltalenthq.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}