germany officially known as the federal republic of germany is a country located
in central europe the second largest by population in the continent and the biggest in economic terms
for many people germany is the motor of europe and the country that makes the real decisions in
the european union the second biggest market in the world germany borders denmark to the north
poland and the czech republic to the east austria and switzerland to the south and
france luxembourg belgium and the netherlands to the west making the country geographically
well positioned for european trade since 2017 the president of germany is frank walter steinmeier
but for many europeans the real leader of the country is angela merkel chancellor of germany
since 2017 after multiple re-elections merkel has also been from 2000 to 2018 the leader of
the christian democratic union of germany or cdu one of the largest parties in the bundestag
although germany has kept a strong economy in the last decades their partners in the european union
are struggling a lot with italy spain and greece having almost a perpetual crisis with that germany
becomes key in the future success of the union with the asian market growing insanely ready to
take away the spot of the eu as the second biggest market after this simple but quick introduction
we're going to go deep down into the germans economic superpower in the most recent years
if you like this series of videos about economies of countries don't forget to give it a like and
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the description to find out the most updated data note that as the weeks pass some data from this
video will get a little outdated so in any case do your own research for the most recent estimation
on the other hand the study will be done mainly for 2020 data trying to add the
most recent 2021 data available which in so many occasions still won't be released
gdp as we do at the start of every economy video the first indicator we are going to check is the
gross domestic product or gdp in 2020 the german gdp at current prices was a little more than 3.3
trillion euros which with the actual exchange makes an approximation of 3.9 trillion dollars
after a 2.3 percent reduction from 2019 germany has been able to keep their economy strong after
the lockdown with a similar behavior as 2009 a recession year due to the financial crisis
to put in perspective how big the german economy is in 1991 the gdp of the country was 1.5 trillion
euros a similar amount as the economy of spain currently a country who remains as the 14th
biggest economy in the world if we get into the most recent data the second quarter of 2021 was
9.6 percent higher price adjusted as the second quarter of 2020 but the first quarter was worse
which makes us think that although 2021 is going to be better than 2020 there is still
work to do for a full recovery of the economy especially if we talk about the eu as a whole
population by december 2020 the total population of germany was 83.15 million people
with a 50 50 ratio female to male in the next graph you can see the evolution of the population
since the early 90s and how the population had an important break in 2010 in which it
started to recover anyway the total population of germany has not changed a lot in the last 10 years
in the same way that is happening in all the developed countries the population pyramid is the
most worrying thing the actual population pyramid of germany looks flat while the future estimations
are even worse with almost a reverse pyramid the baby boom is going to be one of the most damaging
generations in demographic terms while the younger generations are unable to have more kids mainly
due to the unstable economic situation following the estimations by 2060 the retired people will
represent 28 percent of the german population gdp per capita with the data mentioned before
the gdp per capita of germany for 2020 was almost forty thousand five hundred euros or an estimate
of forty seven thousand four hundred dollars noting that the population has been constant
while the gdp has been growing the gdp per capita follows a similar trend as the economy
if we investigate the 2021 estimation for gdp per capita thanks to the international monetary fund
germany is situated with 51 860 at the 16th position approximately by gdp per capita worldwide
official currency note this is not the first time we talk about a european economy
the euro has been mentioned a few times a member of the euro area since the beginning in 1999
the currency was fully introduced in germany by 2002 after a transitional period of three years
when the euro was the official currency but only existed as book money at the moment of
doing this video with 1 euro you were able to get 1.17 making the euro more expensive
than the dollar as we told you before germany remains as the leader of the european union so
as we did with the united states a few weeks ago we will do some quick research on the euro supply
almost exactly as the united states the eu made a huge increase in their supply by 2020
bigger than the one they did between 2007 and 2009 the increase in the money supply should
make the currency itself less valuable making the prices rise with the following inflation but
is the inflation rising in germany or even in europe in fact the inflation has increased in
most european countries but to be fair not as fast as in america public debt at the end of the first
quarter of 2021 the debt of germany goes up to 2.2 trillion euros or the equivalent to almost 2.6
trillion dollars which means a debt to gdp of 65 percent in my estimations as many other countries
germany increased their debt heavily in 2020 when in 2019 they had a 55 debt to gdp compared
with all their european neighbors germany keeps a feasible level of debt taking care of the actual
standards of the most indebted countries with several economies surpassing the 100 percent mark
germany has plenty of room to get in debt in case of need for some improvement in their current
impressive infrastructure public budget with 1.7 trillion euros in expenditure and a smaller amount
of 1.5 trillion euros in revenue germany and 2020 had their worst fiscal deficit in this century
with a negative 189 billion euros even surpassing the fiscal results of 2009.
germany was one of the only countries in europe with surplus in their public budget
in the last years but even for the german giant 2020 was a tough one agriculture sector in 2020
the last full year available agriculture forestry and fishing generated 22 billion euros or an
estimate of 26 billion dollars which means close to 0.7 percent of the entire gdp at current prices
since 2010 the agriculture sector of germany looks stuck in a similar level industry sector
on the other hand industry represents 28.9 of germany's gdp generating 871.5 billion euros
or an estimate of 1 trillion dollars inside the sector manufacturing with 600 billion euros is the
biggest sector followed by construction with 180 billion euros germany has always been a country
who constantly bet for the industry sector which is proved by the constant growth in the last years
service sector with 2.1 trillion euros service is the major sector of the german industry following
the same trend as the most developed countries with 70.4 percent of the gdp in the sector
this time the public sector wins as the major service sub-sector with almost 600 billion
euros generating a similar amount as manufacturing wholesale follows the top with 473 billion euros
here's the graph of the service sector since 2005. you can pause the video to check it
with more details tourism according to the government germany in 2020 has a total of 98
million arrivals which noting the situation of the year looks amazing although it's still far
from 2019 levels where they got almost 191 million arrivals in that year 2019 germany
registered 39 million international arrivals and 151 million domestic arrivals increasing
those numbers by more than 50 percent since 2006 building a strong tourism sector one of the best
data for the germany tourism sector is how in the international arrivals the top three nationalities
are formed countries with high purchasing power the netherlands switzerland and the united states
inflation in the same way that's happening in the u.s germany's inflation is rising dangerously in
the last months to the last 3.8 percent inflation from july 2020 to july 2021 in cpi terms the
index goes to 110.1 in july 2021 being 100 in 2015 meaning a 10.1 percent increase in prices
since then 10.1 percent looks like a low number for a five-year period but if i told you that
the same index was 105.5 in december of 2020 the situation starts to look scary exports and imports
now that we've seen the bad news let's talk about one of the strongest points of the german economy
trade and business in 2020 germany had a positive trade balance of 206 billion dollars
a great surplus in their foreign trade but one of the lowest surpluses in the last years
remaining 2014 as the highest point on the topic germany has been exporting more than importing
in the last 30 years which makes clear why so many countries want to learn from the germans
moving to exports in 2020 germany generated a total of almost 1.4 trillion dollars since
2008 the exports of germany have remained stuck in this mark after an insane rise in the early 2000s
the most exported products in 2020 were by order machinery vehicles and finally electronics
if we talk about countries the major export partners of germany in 2020 were by order united
states china and france on the other hand if we talk about imports in 2020 germany made a total
of 1.1 trillion dollars having a similar behavior as the exports the most imported products in 2020
were by order machinery electronics and vehicles if we talk about countries the major import
partners in 2020 were by order china netherlands and the united states for those who are curious
this is the graph of the foreign trade until june 2021 just pause if you want to check it quietly
german bond as other countries have done in this channel the germany 10-year bond
follows a negative yield since 2019. as we discussed several times among other applications
these types of yields are used by big corporations for asset allocation which could be also used to
create similar products as the subprime while mixing german bonds with highly risky assets
compressing a safer product in the eyes of the regulator or the rating agency
germany taxes the personal tax of germany follows a progressive table going from zero percent for
the low income taxpayers to the highest 45 percent to those who make the most the corporate tax
of germany is slightly higher than 15 percent due to the solidarity tax and adds a trade tax
which goes from 14 to 17 percent the total tax goes between 30 to 33 percent
unemployment the unemployment rate in germany for june 2021 was 3.7 percent slowly decreasing
from the rise they had in 2020 due to the lockdown even with that the last rate is low making germany
one of the strongest labor markets of europe conclusion when people tell you how important
germany is for europe there is a reason behind it which in the video was proven with numbers
although in europe there are several countries who are doing a better job than germany such as
switzerland norway or the netherlands none of them can compare in dimensions to the german economy
like the u.s the germans must control their inflation which has slightly increased in the
last months on the other hand germany should push their foreign trade which looks a little stuck
while also must invest in technology compared with china or the united states germany has almost zero
unicorns or strong tech companies finally germany has the role of leader in a european union which
is looking worse every single year with countries in an eternal recession such as greece or spain
which at the end could drag down other countries such as portugal or italy
if you like this video don't forget to give it a like and subscribe for more future videos
comment below what are your thoughts about germany if you know more about germany's economy
or you're from germany and want to add more data let me know in the comments
hope to see you in the next video and have a good day bye