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It doesn't take much these days to rile German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble. Last Thursday, as he made his way to the stage at George Washington University in the US capital, for example, a steward stretched his arm out to guide Schäuble to the stage. "Yes, yes, I can see," Schäuble grumbled irritably as he pushed his wheelchair forward.
His tetchiness is understandable. Schäuble this autumn is on the defensive to an extent not seen in some time. During his appearance on the panel, he faced repeated demands from other speakers, including Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, for Germany to take action to spark economic growth in Europe. He sought to counteract them with his usual mantra, according to which Germany remains the motor driving the entire European economy.
The problem, though, is that Europe's motor is losing steam, with a slew of bad news about the German economy in recent weeks. The latest business climate index published by the respected Munich economic think tank Ifo, which is considered to be a reliable early indicator, fell for the fifth straight month in September to its lowest level in almost a year and a half. Furthermore, German factory orders are down and exports are collapsing. And last week, the country's leading economic research institutes issued downward revisions of their economic forecasts for this year and next.