Professor Kooths argued that after five years of strong economic growth, the German economy is at risk of overheating. German companies have expressed concerns that they are close to productive capacity and the German economy last year surpassed its potential growth rate of about 1.5 per cent for a fourth consecutive year. Professor Kooths argued that there is a risk that policymakers will misallocate resources into spending programmes, which could lead to inflation, whereas the economy requires structural reform.
About the Speaker:
Stefan Kooths holds an MSc (1993) and a PhD (1998) in economics from the University of Münster in Germany. He joined the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in 2010. Since 2014, he has been Head of the Forecasting Center, the Institute’s macroeconomic think tank and business cycle analysis unit. In 2013, he was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Applied Sciences Europe in Berlin, where he initiated Europe’s first Master Program in Entrepreneurial Economics.
