Now it has been officially confirmed: strong economic growth in Germany is not something just fancied, but a fact. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, GDP adjusted for price was 2.5% stronger in 2006 than in the previous year. The seasonally adjusted figure even reveals a growth rate of 2.7% which is the second best value in the entire decade since 1996 (top year was 2000 with +3.2%).
The driving forces behind growth in 2006 were of domestic as well as of foreign origin. In contrast to the previous two years the lion share of growth in 2006 is to be attributed to internal factors (+1.7%) rather than net exports (+0.7%). A particular important contribution was made by gross investments in plant and equipment which increased as strongly as never before since the re-unification of Germany: this kind of investment rose by 7.3% in 2006 as compared to the year 2005. After a long period of slackness building investments also increased substantially by 3.6%.
However, not only did Germans invest more, but they also consumed more: after two years of virtual stagnation private consumption increased by 0.6% and government purchases rose by 1.7%. Furthermore foreign trade keeps being dynamic: export and import growth rates almost doubled as compared to the year 2005 with exports once more growing more strongly (+12.4%) than imports (+12.1%) in real terms.
According to preliminary calculations the public sector presented a financial deficit of 46.5 billion Euros in 2006 which corresponds to a percentage of 2.0% in proportion to nominal GDP in 2006. This means that for the first time since 2001 the reference value of 3% stipulated by the Maastricht treaty was not surpassed. 