berlin nov 30 reuters  germanys strong fourth wave of coronavirus infections and the new omicron variant are unlikely to tip its economy into recession although output will now reach its prepandemic level later than expected leading economists told reuters on tuesday speaking at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of reuters germanlanguage news service government economic policy advisor monika schnitzer said the economy would probably not regain its precrisis size in the first quarter of 2022 now that could be postponed into the second quarter schnitzer said that means the governments council of economic advisors will probably have to reduce their economic forecasts slightly she added the council currently predicts the economy europes largest will grow by 27 this year and 46 in 2022 schnitzer said she did not expect the government to impose a nationwide lockdown including vaccinated citizens and that so far it seemed unlikely that the omicron variant would kill the recovery and push the economy into a recession clemens fuest head of germanys ifo economic institute and marcel fratzscher head of the countrys diw economic institute told the same reuters panel they also did not expect the economy to shrink for two quarters in a row over the winter months i wouldnt expect a recession now we rather expect that we will see a stagnation in the fourth quarter fuest said adding the economy would probably grow at a slower pace in early 2022 german household spending was the sole driver of a weakerthanexpected quarterly economic expansion of 17 in july to september more than offsetting a drop in company investments due to supply bottlenecks in manufacturing the surge in coronavirus infections in germany is threatening to kick away the countrys last remaining pillar of growth as it weighs on consumer morale dampening business prospects in the christmas shopping season read more