MACRO ECONOMY

Macro Economy

Macro Economy

GDP of Germany

Given its economy's high degree of openness and integration with the world economy, Germany was hit exceptionally hard by the global economic crisis. The German government has responded to the crisis with the available fiscal space to implement countercyclical measures, which helped avoid an even deeper recession but also increased the fiscal deficit substantially.

Following a sharp fall in GDP growth in the first half of 2009, the broad-based policy support and an uptick in global demand lifted the economy in the second half of the year and in 2010, during which the country saw record GDP growth. Real GDP in the second quarter of 2010 was up 2.2 percent over the preceding quarter, marking the strongest quarterly increase in GDP since German reunification. A rebound in manufacturing orders and exports - mainly outside of the Euro Zone - as well as relatively steady consumer demand, helped Germany crawl out of the recession (Germany GDP, 2012). This export-led recovery was expected to stay strong in 2011 although in a statement to the World Bank in October of 2010, Wolfgang Schäuble, the country's finance minister predicted the upswing would indeed continue, but at a more moderate pace.

The decline of the German economic performance in the current year is slightly lower than estimated. Positive stimuli come only from the construction sector. By contrast, the French economy escapes a fall quarter. The German economy contracted in late 2011 for the first time in nearly three years. The gross domestic product went to the Federal Statistical Office from October to December by 0.2 percent compared with the previous quarter. In a first estimate of January, the statisticians had expected another decline in economic output by 0.25 percent.

GDP of Netherland

Real GDP growth accelerated from an average of 1.9 percent in 2004 ...