Thursday, September 2, 2010

Feeling good in Germany


Just ran across this monthly survey of about 7,000 firms in Germany in the manufacturing, construction, wholesaling and retailing industries. The survey asks for their assessment of the current business situation and their expectations for the next six months. I hadn't updated my chart for awhile, and was impressed with how strong the index has been this year. The index in this chart has a correlation to German GDP growth of about 0.7, so it is a pretty good indicator of how healthy conditions are in the core of Europe. The German economy has grown 3.7% in the year ending last June, more than the 3.0% recorded for the U.S. economy.

What's good for Germany can't be bad for us.

1 comment:

Benjamin Cole said...

Since 1990, which nation has enjoyed higher GDP growth: France or Japan.

The answer is: France. (USA easilytopped them both).

Heyzooz Aloo, Japan had the ultra-strong yen, and zero inflation over that period, and now a hyper-strong yen, and deflation.

And they can't keep up with France--effing France, for crickey's sake.

The Japan Wing of the Fed wants to emulate the BoJ.

Have the readers of this blog considered migrating in stocks of emerging nations? Because stocks of Japan are down 75 percent the last 20 years.