Germany
After World War II and at the start of the Cold War in 1949, Germany became divided into two states: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German
Democratic Republic (GDR). The FRG aligned itself with Western economic systems (capitalism) and organizations such as the European Economic Community (which later
became the European Union) and NATO. Meanwhile the GDR aligned itself with the communist economic policies of the Warsaw Pact and the European Communist Bloc.
In 1990, with the end of the Cold War and the decline of the USSR came German reunification. Since then, a reunited Germany has been able to bring East German
productivity, wages, and living standards up to par with those of West Germany and the rest of Western Europe.
In January 1999, Germany along with ten other European Union countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro, which is the only currency of sixteen
European Union member states today.
Today Germany has Europe’s largest economy and second largest country in terms of population. Germany has the fourth highest nominal GDP and fifth highest GDP PPP in
the world. The country is the world’s top exporter with exports constituting a third of national output and with most of its products coming from merchandise and the
engineering industry. The country is the world’s top producer of wind turbines and solar power technology. The service sector constitutes the largest portion of GDP (70%),
followed by industry (29.1%) and agriculture (0.9%).
Although the government deregulated the labor market in 2003 in order to tackle high unemployment, unemployment levels have been rising since and were at 7.2% as of
October 2008. Because the German economy is heavily export-oriented, the worldwide recession has decreased economic growth to –2.1%, with exports expected to decline
even further.
Franconomics.com Data (2007 est.):
Population: 82.7 million
GDP Purchasing Power Parity: $2.807 trillion
GDP Official Exchange Rate: $3.322 trillion
GDP Growth Rate: 2.5%
GDP per Capita: $34,100
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