Germany Has Now Recovered Fully From 2008-09 Recession

Numbers released today showed strong growth from Germany, with GDP rising 4.9% in adjusted terms compared to a year earlier and 1.5% (6.1% at an annualized rate). Some of this quarterly growth represents, like in Britain, a bounce back from the weather depressed fourth quarter, but unlike in Britain, who had zero growth between Q3 2010 and Q1 2011, Germany's GDP grew a total of 1.9% during this period. So the German economy is definitely a lot stronger than the British

And unlike the British economy whose output remains significantly below pre-crisis levels, Germany had in the first quarter finally recovered all of the output reduction during the 2008-09 recession. And unlike some other economies that did that already the previous quarter, like Sweden and the United States, Germany has had slightly negative population growth, meaning that per capita income is unlike in Sweden and the United States already above pre-crisis levels. That is one of the reasons why Germany is one of the few countries that has an unemployment rate below pre-crisis levels.