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"Saying German success is mostly based on the Euro is a great narrative but completely ignores the reality that Germany's economy was already strong and getting stronger in the decades before that."

Which part of "it wasn't just the Euro, reunification had the same effect" was I unclear about?




> Which part of "it wasn't just the Euro, reunification had the same effect" was I unclear about?

West Germany was before the Euro and before the reunification economically strong.

It was the world's largest exporter in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990. Around 1960 Germany was already second largest exporter in the world.

Reunification was in October 1990.


As far as I was aware it happened in the early-mid 90s:

http://savingusmanufacturing.com/blog/general/how-did-german...

"Germany surpassed the United States to become the world’s leading exporter in 1992, around the time that Germany joined the European Union as a founding member."


As I said Germany was already the world's second largest exporter in 1960. Behind the US, which has 4 times the population.

Germany then became the largest exporter in 86, 87, 88, 90, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.

In 2016 Germany is the third largest exporter after China and the US. The account surplus (goods, services and investments) was the largest, next is China.


Where is this data?


For example: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exportweltmeister

https://unstats.un.org/unsd/trade/imts/Historical%20data%201...

Percentage of world exports in 1960:

United States 16%

West Germany 9%

UK 7.8%

France 5.4%

https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/wtr13-2b_e.pdf

Percentage of world merchandize exports in 1980:

USA 11%

West Germany 9.5%

Japan 6.4%

China 0.9%

Thus the claim that Germany is a leading exporter because of Euro currency manipulation fails to explain why Germany was one of the leading exporters in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s. In all those years it was in the top three.




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