Germany is the world’s third largest economy after the US and Japan in terms of GDP, and as one of the top exporters of merchandise products, one of the world’s most important trading nations. It has a high GDP per capita of some EUR 25 900. It is also the largest economy and most populous country in the EU, with 82.3 million inhabitants. Manufacturing industries with a strong export orientation remain the backbone of a diverse economy ...

Germany is the world’s third largest economy after the US and Japan in terms of GDP, and as one of the top exporters of merchandise products, one of the world’s most important trading nations. It has a high GDP per capita income of some EUR 25 900 and enjoys high standards of social welfare. It is also the largest economy and most populous country in the EU, with 82.3 million inhabitants. Re-unification has boosted Germany’s strategically central location in Europe, which promotes especially strong east-west ties with other European countries. Manufacturing industries with a strong export orientation (including automobiles, chemicals, machinery, shipbuilding, electrical engineering, and household equipment) remain the backbone of a diverse economy. The services sector ....

Germany is the world’s third largest economy after the US and Japan, following re-unification with the east in 1990. Its governance framework, which was developed in the post-war years to support a massive rebuilding of the economy and society, is marked by several strong and distinctive features. The first is co-operative federalism, under which the States (Länder) have significant regulatory powers and responsibility for implementing most federal legislation. The Länder governments are represented by the Bundesrat in the German parliament and have the right to veto much of the legislation of the Bundestag (the federal chamber). This system ...

Competition law and policy occupy a central position in Germany’s economic and political framework, and have deep roots in the country’s history. Vigorous economic growth accompanied industrialisation and re-unification in the second part of the 19th century, underpinned by a strong belief in the merits of the free market. As the economy started to experience the “boom and bust” of industrial cycles, the perception of competition changed. It needed to be controlled, and in response to crisis, firms started to co-operate by entering agreements on production and capacity. By 1900 there were 400 established cartels, an apparently permanent feature of the economy: larger, more numerous and more durable than elsewhere in the industrialised world. The political leadership did not fundamentally object (cartels helped to bind the newly integrated German State together), and economic thinkers tended to ...

In the European context, Germany’s striking feature is its size. It is the world’s third largest economy after the US and Japan, the world’s second largest exporter of merchandise products, and the largest market in the EU, with a population of 82.3 million and a GDP of EUR 2 269.2 billion in 2001. It also faces the continuing challenge of adjusting its economy to re-unification. The integration of the new Länder has been pursued with the aim of equalising living standards across the country, and this has proved costly. Budgetary transfers ...

Reform of Germany’s electricity and gas sectors needs to be set in the context of its high-level energy policy objectives, the sectors’ distinctive structural evolution, and the country’s equally distinctive framework for governance developed as part of the post-war social market economy. German energy policy promotes, with equal weight, security of supply, economic efficiency, and environmental protection. The policy mix thus includes a number of sometimes conflicting goals. A programme of rapid liberalisation, well beyond the requirements of the current EU directives aimed at creating a single internal market, has been pursued to increase efficiency. On the environmental front, Germany seeks...

The telecommunications industry is a key part of the German economy and critical to its competitiveness. The government recognises its role in economic development and the fact that a competitive environment is the best way to stimulate private investment, as well as bringing consumer benefits. Liberalisation started in 1989 when Deutsche Bundespost was split into three, and regulation was separated from operations. The telecommunications arm ...