(Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Christian Sewing called on Germans to work harder if they want to get the country’s economy back on track.
“Investors have been telling us for more than a year that they doubt Germany’s and Europe’s ability to perform, and even worse, the will to perform,” Sewing said at a conference in Frankfurt on Wednesday. “Let’s just go back to working as hard as the EU average,” he urged the country’s citizens.
The German economy has been stagnating for years and hopes it will soon rebound have recently been dashed, with Ifo institute President Clemens Fuest warning the country is “falling into crisis.” The dismal outlook has also started to take a toll on the domestic banks.
Sewing’s appeal came on the same day that one of Germany’s most iconic companies — carmaker Volkswagen AG — detailed considerations to carry out unprecedented factory closures in the country. Europe’s demand for cars hasn’t recovered since the pandemic and the region’s auto deliveries are 2 million short of the peak, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz said at an employee assembly in the company’s home town Wolfsburg.
EU citizens work about 34 hours a week on average compared with just about 28 hours in Germany, Sewing said at the conference on Wednesday.
“We simply have to tell our fellow citizens that we have to do more again,” he said.
--With assistance from Zoe Schneeweiss.
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