BERLIN, Aug 30: Germany is facing an economic downturn after several years of growth, but there is no reason for panic about recession, government economic adviser Wolfgang Wiegard said in an interview.

Wiegard, a member of the government’s panel of economic advisers, said there was little the government could do about slowing growth because it was largely due to external factors: higher oil prices, a strong euro and accelerating inflation.

“The nearly three-year period of good times is now over but there is no reason to get hysterical about a recession,” Wiegard was quoted telling the Rheinpfalz am Sonntag newspaper.

German gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.5 percentage point in the April-June period after expanding strongly in the first three months of the year.

Contraction in the third quarter, which economists have said is possible, would put Germany in recession — commonly defined as at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Norbert Walter, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, said in a separate interview in the Euro am Sonntag newspaper that Germany would need an unexpected stroke of good fortune to avoid slipping into recession.

“A steep fall in prices for energy and food, a surprising economic stabilisation in the US or a wondrous strengthening of the dollar would be such stroke of luck,” Walter told the newspaper.

“None of those scenarios are plausible,” he said.

Both Wiegard and Walter spoke out against any government spending programme.

—Reuters