As twilight gathers over Germany’s “grand coalition” government of Angela Merkel, the surprisingly robust recovery that the country has enjoyed also looks to be coming to an end.

Europe’s largest economy has not been at the centre of the hurricanes that have hit the world’s financial markets and industrialised economies. But its rebound has been blown off course by the battering taken around the world – the US in particular, but also rapidly-developing emerging economies, European neighbours and most recently Russia, one of Germany’s fastest-growing export markets.