The German economy is not as strong as it looks because of low internal investment and adverse demographic trends

The German economy has generally been perceived as the strongest in the Eurozone, particularly since the start of the financial crisis. Terence Tse argues that while the country has impressive headline economic figures, the situation is not quite as healthy as it appears. He notes that levels of internal investment are relatively low in comparison to other European countries, and that demographic trends are likely to impede future development. He concludes that rather than relying on Germany to pull Europe out of its crisis, helping ‘periphery’ countries to stand on their own feet may be a more productive solution.