Chemical industry is expected to underperform
As in the preceding years, the chemical industry is expected to underperform
also in 2017 and 2018 in comparison to the manufacturing average. Still, output
in the chemical sector (excluding pharmaceuticals) looks set to rise by more
than 1% in 2017 after having shrunk in each of the years between 2014 and
2016.
We expect it to roughly stagnate in 2018. We stick to our view that much
of the repeated below-average performance of the chemicals industry is due to
structural reasons (the capital stock in Germany has been shrinking for years,
not least because of the uncertainty about the German government’s energy
policy).
EU Forecast
euf:ba18h:149/nws-01