London CNN - Last year's energy price shock damage consumer expenditures, Germany fell into a stagnation. Official data on Thursday, the production of Europe's largest economy fell 0.3% in the first three months of the year and after a shrinkage of 0.5% at the end of 2022. The Federal Statistics Office has reduced zero growth forecast in the gross domestic product compared to the previous quarter. The sequence is defined as two consecutive quarters of the decrease. “The permanence of high price increases continued to be a burden on the German economy at the beginning of the year.“ Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief Euro Regional Economist Claus Vistesen said that in the first quarter, consumers' expenditures were accused of “shock in energy prices”. When Russia occupied Ukraine in February last year, the European energy prices were already increasing when they sent them to the highest record. Uncertain appearance Natural gas prices have fallen since then, and now in the late 2021, it has stopped at the last seen levels and points to alleviating inflationist pressures in the pockets of consumers. The annual inflation rate in Germany has slowed down in April - the first month of the second quarter - but 7.2%with high. In a note, we think that the expenditures of consumers are now recovering, as inflation has been resolved, ”he said. In a sign that Germany's stagnation may be short -lived, timely survey data showed that at the beginning of this week, despite a sharp decline in production, business activities in the country expanded again in May. Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, described the appearance of the economy as “very good ,, pointing to the measurements of its government to expand renewable energy production and attract foreign workers in recent months. At the press conference in Berlin, “There is a lot of investments in Germany and ship factories in terms of battery and ship factories, which is increasing significantly and therefore we can trust ourselves.” However, Capital Economics Senior European economist Franziska Palmas estimates that German production will shrink again in the third and fourth quarters. In one note, he said that the higher interest rates needed to domesticate inflation will continue to be weighed on both consumption and investment and that Germany's exports could be damaged due to the weakness in other developed economies. China is the most important trade partner in Germany just in front of the US. The exports of German cars to China fell 24% in the first quarter. Germany's stagnation at the beginning of the year seems relatively shallow and challenges much more gloomy by the best economic predictions. A report made by five German Economic Institutes in 2022, if the Russian natural gas supply is suddenly closed, the country's GDP in 2023%He said he would make a 2.2 contract. According to the latest estimation of the International Monetary Fund, the German economy is expected to decrease by 0.1% in 2023. In August, Russia closed the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the main source of Germany's main Russian gas, for maintenance and then expanded its closure indefinitely. - Anna Cooban, Mark Thompson, Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto contributed to reporting. Gotopnews.com