By rights, Germany should have been a star player in the global economy this year. In other circumstances, a decade of painful restructuring and wage-restraint would have finally borne fruit.

Gross domestic product had expanded by 2.5 per cent in 2007, but consumer spending had been held in check by a big increase in value-added-tax. For 2008, the prospects seemed good for a broad-based revival that would reassert Germany’s role as the economic powerhouse of Europe.