Germany is the “tired man” of Europe in need of “a strong cup of coffee”, the country’s finance minister said on Friday, arguing the recent economic downturn was a useful wake-up call to enable the reforms needed for recovery.Christian Lindner told the World Economic Forum in Davos that “Germany is not the sick man” of Europe, as some have argued after its economy contracted 0.3 per cent last year and analysts warned it was likely to continue stagnating this year.

Lindner said the country needed to improve its productivity through structural reforms to strengthen the supply side of its economy, such as by improving the availability of labour, energy and digital technology. 

“After a very successful period since 2012 and these years of crises, Germany is a tired man after a short night,” he said, adding: “Low growth expectations are probably a wake-up call and now we have a good cup of coffee, which means structural reforms and then we will be continuing to succeed economically.”