The German government halves its expectation for economic growth in 2019. According to the Spiegel magazine, Berlin is now counting on mediocre 0.5 percent growth for the German economy, while 1 percent was predicted in January.

The German Ministry of Economic Affairs will release official figures next week. Europe’s largest economy is facing a headwind from the weakening world economy, continuing trade tensions and uncertainty due to Brexit. For 2020, the experts expect an improvement of 1.5 percent, says Spiegel.

Earlier this month, five leading German research institutes also lowered their economic forecasts. They now expect a growth of 0.8 percent for this year from 1.9 percent previously predicted.