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Germany
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FactsBackground: As Europe's largest economy and second most populous nation (after Russia), Germany is a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro. In January 2011, Germany assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2011-12 term. note: data are in 2010 US dollars GDP (official exchange rate): $3.306 trillion (2010 est.); GDP - real growth rate: 3.6% (2010 est.); -4.7% (2009 est.); 1% (2008 est.); GDP - per capita (PPP): $35,900 (2010 est.); $34,700 (2009 est.); $36,400 (2008 est.); note: data are in 2010 US dollars GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 0.8%; industry: 27.9%; services: 71.3% (2010 est.); Population below poverty line: 15.5% (2010 est.); Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: 3.6%; highest 10%: 24% (2000); Labor force: 43.35 million (2010 est.); Labor force - by occupation: agriculture: 2.4%; industry: 29.7%; services: 67.8% (2005); Unemployment rate: 7.4% (2010 est.); 7.5% (2009 est.); note: this is the International Labor Organization's estimated rate for international comparisons; Germany's Federal Employment Agency estimated a seasonally adjusted rate of 10.8% Budget: revenues: $1.396 trillion; expenditures: $1.516 trillion (2010 est.); Industries: among the world's largest and most technologically advanced producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages, shipbuilding, textiles; Industrial production growth rate: 9% (2010 est.); Electricity - production: 593.4 billion kWh (2007 est.); Electricity - consumption: 547.3 billion kWh (2007 est.); Electricity - exports: 61.7 billion kWh (2008 est.); Electricity - imports: 41.67 billion kWh (2008 est.); Statistics: CIA World Factbook. PressDisplaying 8 to 14 of 41 items. Der Spiegel(Liberal newsmagazine), Hamburg Der Tagesspiegel(Centrist), Berlin Die Tageszeitung(Left-wing), Berlin Die Welt(Conservative), Berlin Die Zeit(Liberal weekly), Hamburg Dithmarscher Landeszeitung(Conservative), Heide EMMA(Feminist Magazine), Köln Germany in the NewsDisplaying 41 to 44 of 63 items. Europe Is Coming UndoneToday's split in Europe is not over Iraq but over the continent's political direction, argues Leopold Unger of Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza. The Vultures Are GatheringAs hunger in Ethiopia threatens to reach crisis proportions, Western aid has failed to help those in need, reports Thilo Thielke of Germany's Der Spiegel magazine. A New Blueprint for the European Union?A joint French-German proposal to restructure the government of the European Union has raised questions about the Union's future shape. Joanna Griffin, reporting from Germany, reviews the Western European press. Germany: A Pyrrhic Labor VictoryWorld Press Review associate editor Tekla Szymanski reports that the German press gave a cool reception to the Interior Ministry's settlement of a public-sector pay dispute. |
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