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Germany

German Economy

Germany is the largest national economy in Europe, the fourth largest by nominal GDP in the world, and ranked fifth by GDP (PPP) in 2008. Since the age of industrialization, the country has been a driver, innovator, and beneficiary of an ever more globalized economy. Germany is the world's top exporter with $1.133 trillion exported in 2006 (Eurozone countries are included) and generates a trade surplus of €165 billion. The service sector contributes around 70 percent of the total GDP, industry 29.1 percent, and agriculture 0.9 percent. Most of the country's products are in engineering, especially in automobiles, machinery, metals, and chemical goods. Germany is the leading producer of wind turbines and solar power technology in the world. The largest annual international trade fairs and congresses are held in several German cities, such as Hanover, Frankfurt, and Berlin.

 

2009 Exports from California to Germany

                                                                                   Source: export.gov

German companies in the Bay Area

California ranked first nationwide in exports to Germany at $5.6 billion in 2007, representing over 10 percent of all exports to Germany from the United States.

  • Exports to Germany have grown an average of 5.2 percent per year since 1997. German-owned companies were the third-ranked investors in California in terms of both total and manufacturing employment in 1999. These firms employed 67,100 workers, or 10.5 percent of the total. Of these, 18,000, or 26.8 percent, were manufacturing workers.
  • Sub-sectors within manufacturing that have large amounts of investment include chemicals and electrical equipment. Among non-manufacturing industries, German investment in wholesale trade is strong.
  • Another indication of the powerful economic impact that German-owned companies have in the Bay Area market is the level of their gross capital stock investment activities in U.S property, plant, and equipment.
  • German-owned affiliates make a substantial contribution to the American R&D base, ranking first among all foreign affiliates by R&D expenditures in the United States. They performed $6.3 billion in U.S. R&D expenditures in 2005, representing almost 20 percent of the $32 billion in U.S. R&D performed by majority-owned affiliates of foreign companies located in the United States.
  • Real estate investment by German-owned affiliates in the United States was second only to the $27 billion invested by Japanese-owned affiliates. This German investment was also greater than the $15 billion in real estate investments made by Australia and Canada.