German economy shrinks; UK remortgaging lowest since 1999; window firm Safestyle enters administration – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as German GDP shrinks slightly in the third quarter of the year

• House prices fell in 80% of UK markets this year, says Zoopla

Back in the UK, the number of people remortaging their homes with a different lender has fallen to its lowest in almost 25 years.

New data from the Bank of England also shows a wider drop in activity in the mortgage market last month.

In fact, since the war in Ukraine started, the German economy has grown in only two out of the last six quarters. What's even worse is that the economy currently remains hardly above its pre-pandemic level more than three years later.

These data alone underline that the German economy has at least become one of the growth laggards of the eurozone. This weak growth performance has a long list of explanations: there is the cyclical headwind stemming from inflation, still elevated energy prices and energy uncertainty, higher interest rates and China's changing role from being a flourishing export destination to being a rival that needs fewer German products.