BERLIN, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- Germany will experience a further acceleration of growth of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, an annual report released by the federal government predicted on Wednesday.
The official report lifted its forecast for GDP growth in 2018 to 2.4 percent after an estimate of 1.9 percent in 2017. Germany's economic performance already surpassed government expectations during the past year, reaching a GDP growth of 2.2 percent, according to the most recent official data.
The positive development was attributed to strong exports and rising investments.
"The German economy is in a very healthy state," economics minister Brigitte Zypries (SPD) said during the presentation of the findings in Berlin. Zypries noted that growth was broad-based and hence would benefit large swaths of the population. Real net wages have risen above inflation by an average of 1.6 percent per year in Germany since 2013.
The annual report coincides with a raft of optimistic economic data from Germany and the wider eurozone, underscoring the bloc's tangible recovery since the height of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis which originated in the U.S. housing market.
Separate figures published on Wednesday by the Federal Statistical Office also predicted that wage growth would likely lead to another increase in the German national minimum wage from the current 8.84 euros per hour to 9.19 euros (11.01 to 11.45 U.S. dollars) by 2019.
The German government now expects to see the creation of 500,000 new jobs in Germany and the rise of the total number of employed to a new record level of 44.8 million. While the report highlighted the positive circumstance that the unemployment rate would consequently fall to 5.3 percent, it cautioned that a corresponding dearth in the labor supply was posing an increasing challenge to firms.
