Recently,"Germany is or is not the sick man of Europe"The controversy is getting hotter online. Even Germany** had to publicly state at the World Economic Forum in Davos on January 19 that Germany is not"The sick man of Europe", but only"European weepers".
The recent economic downturn in Germany has served as a useful wake-up call to provide the impetus for the reforms needed for the recovery. However, will this defense of ** make everyone agree with the idea that Germany is not sick, but just tired?
Undoubtedly, Germany has always been considered the engine of the European economy and a manufacturing powerhouse. Over the past two years, however, the German economy has been deindustrialised. In the whole process, many people believe that it is caused by the influence of the German Green Party and the United States. According to this, everyone can't help but start discussing:"Is Germany the sick man of Europe? "
In all discussions, even Germany ** can only be in"The sick man of Europe"with"European weepers". "Choose one of the two. This is already the best manifestation of the poor German economy. Looking back at the background of this discussion, it first came from a report published by the British "Economist" on August 17, 2023, "Is Germany once again the sick man of Europe?" 》
In the manuscript, 25 years ago due to the unification.
First, the rigid job market and the slowdown in export demand, the German economy is seriously weakened, the unemployment rate has reached double digits, and it was once called the "sick man of Europe"."；Now, the German economy is once again facing difficulties and could become the only large economy to shrink in 2023. Germany's rebuttal to this report was unsuccessful. In an interview with Die Welt, Scholz countered that Germany is not Europe's sick man. But the public didn't buy the rebuttal.
In fact, the economies of Britain and Japan are not necessarily better than those of Germany. First of all, Japan's inflation problem is also very serious. Japan's inflation rate has been above 3% for 15 months, and has only fallen slightly to 2 in the last two months6%；However, the inflation situation "felt" by the Japanese people is far more serious than the data. All this shows that the Japanese economy is not much better.
Secondly, Britain's own economy is not much better than that of Germany. The inflation problem in the UK is also very serious. The UK has been brainless lately**, and Brexit will not change the bad momentum of the UK economy. ** The focus shifted to Germany.
On January 17, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun published a report "Germany's GDP surpasses Japan's, still.""The sick man of Europe"?》。In the world**, the focus has shifted to Germany. Because Germany's nominal GDP in 2023 is to surpass Japan and jump to the third place in the world. This made the Japanese ** unconvinced and sent a refutation of the rumors.
However, the German Foreign Minister had to claim that the "short night" he was talking about was the exponential year of the epidemic crisis and the Russia-Ukraine conflict that broke out in 2022. He said that the "strong coffee" that Germany needs refers to the implementation of structural reforms to increase productivity and strengthen the supply side of the economy.
Some people may be puzzled by all this: Isn't it said that the German economy will shrink in 2023? How can GDP growth surpass that of Japan? This is nominal GDP, which includes inflation, and in an environment of high inflation, nominal GDP will naturally increase. But this does not reflect the reality of the German economy.
In fact, Germany's current economic predicament will not be solved in a moment. First of all, the epidemic in Europe is still not fully controlled, which is still a huge pressure on the European economy. Secondly, in the past few years, Germany has experienced a series of economic problems, including deindustrialization, high inflation, etc., which need to be solved in the long term.
Of course, in any case, it is better for Germany to spend its time on how to solve economic problems than on these inconsequential debates, after all, this is what Germans care about, and this is the key to really promoting the German economy.
What do you think?