The German economy shrank for the second straight year in 2024 as worried consumers held back on spending and Chinese competition ate into the country’s traditional exports of cars and industrial machinery.

Friedrich Merz, the chancellor candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union acknowledged the need for a “major effort” to revive the economy as his party pledges to return German growth to 2 percent over the next five years through changes to the welfare and tax systems.

Germany has not found any further cases of foot-and-mouth disease, agriculture minister Cem Oezdemir said on Wednesday, adding that experts were working day and night to establish the source of the country's first outbreak of the disease in decades.

German authorities said on Tuesday they had found no new cases of the livestock illness foot-and-mouth disease following intensive testing around the area where the first case was confirmed last week.

Defra’s decision to ban imports of German livestock in a bid to protect the UK from Foot and Mouth Disease does not apply in Northern Ireland, it has emerged.