Germany

Taking into consideration the growing global instability as well as the changing tasks the country’s armed forces are facing in the area of external security – including national defence and international deployments - the German government decided to reverse the trend of recent years and to significantly raise its defence spending. It is indicative that the defence budget will be increased by 1.7 billion Euros in 2017, reaching 36.6 billion Euros, while an additional 10.2 billion Euros to that previously planned, will be allocated to defence, up to the year 2020. More on that, spending on internal security will rise by approximately 540 million Euros in the 2017 budget and by a total of over 2.2 billion Euros, up to 2020.

Germany is a country in west-central Europe, bordering France, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and Belgium to the west/southwest, Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east/southeast, and Switzerland and Austria to the south. The country further has approximately 1,484 miles of coastline looking on to the Baltic and the North Sea.

Germany is a federal parliamentary republic, which comprises of 16 constituent states (Länder). Responsibility for internal security, schools, universities, culture, and municipal administration, lies with the states’ authorities. The main constitutional and legislative body at the federal level, are the Bundestag (similar to the British House of Commons), the Bundesrat (the Federal Council that represents the sixteen federal states), the Federal President, the Federal Government, and the Federal Constitutional Court.

For 45 years, Germany was divided into two separate areas; the east was controlled by the communist Soviet Bloc, while the west was aligned to the West. In 1990, the German Democratic Republic (the East part of Germany) joined the Federal Republic of Germany (the West part of Germany), to form the reunited nation of Germany.

Germany (at the time West Germany) was one of the founding members of the EU, as in 1957, together with Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, signed the Treaty of Rome, which created the European Economic Community (EEC). In 2002, Germany was one of the 12 countries which introduced the euro. The country is a member of several other international organisations, such as the Council of Europe (CE), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations (UN), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Germany is the largest economy in the European Union (EU) and the world’s fourth largest economy, after only the US, China, and Japan. In 2014, it accounted for 21% of Europe's GDP (EU-28) and was home to 16% of the EU population. According to statistics provided by Eurostat, almost 10 percent of Europe's manufacturing companies are German, and they generate 30% of the EU's gross value added in manufacturing, forming a viable and profitable industrial base, the backbone of which are the numerous Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that are based in the country.

 

GDP (in EUR trill.)

SHARE OF TOTAL GDP (EU-28)

POPULATION
(in m)

SHARE OF TOTAL POPULATION
(EU-28)

Germany

2.90

21%

81

16%

UK

2.22

16%

66

13%

France

2.14

15%

64

13%

Spain

1.06

8%

47

9%

Netherlands

0.65

5%

17

3%

Poland

0.41

3%

38

8%

Czech Republic

0.16

1%

11

2%

Hungary

0.10

1%

10

2%

SMEs generate 62% of all job positions in Germany. Many of these companies are considered to be leaders in their respective niche industrial segments. Together with internationally leading companies - such as Bayer, BASF, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Siemens create a large and stable industry base, which has historically attracted large volumes of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

According to data provided by the United Nations’ Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Germany ranks 13th in the world, as a recipient of FDI, in 2015. Notably, official Bundesbank (“German Central Bank”) statistics indicated that in 2013, 56% (or EUR 257 billion) of all FDI inflows to Germany, originated from within the European Union, with a further 7% originating from the remaining European, non-EU countries, with North America accounting for a further 21% of the total FDI inflow and Asia for another 10%. In addition, in 2015, the country attracted approximately 7% of the total EU and almost 2% of the global FDI.

According to several international indicators, Germany is one of the most attractive business locations in the world. The main reasons are the existence of a well-established legal system that protects property and individual rights and a competitive tax regulations’ framework. In 2017, Germany ranked 17th out of 190 countries in the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report, 17th out of 166 countries in the 2016 Heritage Foundation’s “Index of Economic Freedom” and 10th out of 128 in the Global Innovation index.

Year

Measure/Indicator

Rank

Website Address

2017

Doing Business report

(17th out of 190)

www.doingbusiness.org/

2016

Index of Economic Freedom

(17th out of 166)

www.heritage.org

2016

Global Innovation index

(10th out of 128)

www.globalinnovationindex.org