By: Bikal Dhungel
Germany has the Europe’s largest economy since
1900. Many multi-national companies originated here and are still world’s
leading exporters. Henkel, a company with its history of chemicals and consumer
products like washing detergent powders was founded in 1876. BMW was founded in
1917. All 30 companies listed in the German Stock Exchange ( DAX: Deutsche
Aktien Index ) are involved in international operations. Most of them are well
known to the world. Companies like Adidas, Daimler, Nivea ( Beiersdorf ), BMW,
Lufthansa, DHL, Mercedes Benz, Siemens, Volkswagen, SAP are the symbol of
quality for the world, that strengthened the idea of ‘Made in Germany’. Handful
of other companies like Porsche, Audi, and Opel etc played a vital role as
well. Due to this idea of Quality, Germany established itself as a world leader
in export. Large part of its GDP comes from Export. The main trading partners
are the countries within the European Union but also the US, Japan, China and
India.
Being the largest economy of Europe, Germany is
also the motor that keeps the European Union running. Recently, when most of
the southern European countries are struggling due to debt crisis and economic
difficulties, the healthy growth of Germany has given them some hope. A large
portion of southern European Youths have found Germany an attractive location
for employment opportunities because in countries like Greece and Spain, youth
unemployment rate is as high as 50%. Due to the freedom of movement within the
European Union, the youth mobility in Europe is immense. Six new members of the
European Union mainly the Eastern European countries also enjoy this right of
movement since May 2011. This caused the even more inflow of people to Germany.
Due to this growth and the availability of employment, these youths are being
able to help people back home.
In the international level, the total German
Foreign Direct Investment has reached record levels, mainly in China. German
investors are discovering China as an attractive destination for investment. Germany is not only an export champion with its
total revenue of 1.5 trillion Euros from export, but it also imports the goods
worth 1 trillion Euros yearly. Hence, its weight in the world economy is huge.
This massive involvement in the world economy
also makes it vulnerable. Any instability of economy in any part of the world
comes at the cost of German economy. The recent recession that started in 2008
caused the decreased demands of German goods worldwide. Consequently, the
economy went down by roughly 6%, making it one of the hardest hit countries due
to the recession. It is still unclear how long it takes to come back to the
level of 2007 but the economy is growing with an accelerating rate. Number of
employed people reached the record levels of roughly 42 million ( in its total
population of 82 million )
Germany is especially famous for its idea of
‘Ordnung’ ( Order ) and discipline, also
in the economic system. It is a member of International Monetary Fund, OECD,
World Trade Organization etc and has a big voice in the international decision
making process. The heroes behind this
success are not only the Corporations and businesses but also the hard working
citizens of Germany are equal shareholders and their efforts are supported by
strong political and economical stability.
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