Germany is Europe’s dominant economy, accounting for over 20% of EU GDP. In 2009, China edged marginally ahead of Germany as the world’s largest exporter. However, as German exports in March 2010 were a staggering 35% higher than the previous year, China’s position as No1 exporter may be short lived.
Worldwide only the US can claim more fortune 500 ranked companies than Germany, however, the German economy is dominated by SME’s known locally as ”mittelständische” who constitute 99.7% of all companies and employ 70.5% of Germany’s 30m workforce.
2009 a record 3.9 million cars were sold across Germany, a 24% increase on 2008 and currently dominates the EU car industry accounting for 32% of the cars manufactured in the EU and 20% of new car registrations.
The German automobile repair, replacement and support sectors are the EU’s largest. By servicing Germany’s 53.5 m cars the industry generated a combined turnover of €67bn in 2008
Despite the sovereign debt and problems with the EURO the German economy grew by 0.4% in Q1 2010, slightly ahead of forecasts. This news had a positive effect on the business community resulting in the IFO business confidence index in March increasing to its highest level since July 2008
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Further ReadingGerman Central Statistics Office
German Finance MinistryGfK Financial Indices
IFO InstituteTD News International