German growth could top expectations this year: Bundesbank

Frankfurt

THE German economy could grow faster this year than earlier expected on the back of exceptionally strong industrial production, exports and consumption, the Bundesbank said in a monthly report on Monday.

Solid sales are pushing capacity utilisation in manufacturing even higher, fuelling a further rise in corporate investment in the eurozone's biggest economy, the central bank said after growth rose to its fastest annualised rate in over two years in the second quarter.

With the eurozone economy now expanding for the 17th straight quarter, Germany has been the engine of recovery, giving the European Central Bank some room to at least discuss curtailing its unprecedented…