The growth of the German economy remains strong, but the momentum has probably weakened, the German central bank, Bundesbank, published on Tuesday in their monthly bulletin, also mentioning the continuous risk of a global trade war.

“We expected that growth in Germany would continue. However, the basic momentum in economy may have slowed down sooner than expected, with growth tempo only a little over expectations,” Bundesbank said.

“This leads to a conclusion that the already high capacity utilisation rates will grow more slowly,” they added.

They attribute the slowing down of growth in the first quarter of 2018 to external factors, adding that recovery was still possible, although the total momentum has weakened.

The quarterly growth rate of the German economy has been halved to 0.3 percent, the lowest rate in the last six quarters, which raised concerns that the five-year growth may have reached its peak.

Bundesbank said the slowing down should be seen in the context of an exceptionally strong upswing from mid 2016.

“The consumers are still in a good (spending) mood, and the positive economic movements should continue in the next quarters,” the bulletin said.

Among the risks to global growth are primarily the United States’ trade politics and the current US-China tensions which could turn into a wider trade war, Bundesbank said.