nvironmental liabilities remain.
Eastern Germany has one of the world's largest reserves of low-grade lignite
coal but little else in the way of mineral resources. The quality of
statistics from eastern Germany is improving, yet many gaps remain; the
federal government began producing all-German data for select economic
statistics at the start of 1992. The most challenging economic problem is
promoting eastern Germany's economic reconstruction - specifically, finding
the right mix of fiscal, monetary, regulatory, and tax policies that will
spur investment in eastern Germany - without destabilizing western Germany's
economy or damaging relations with West European partners. The biggest
danger is that excessive wage settlements and heavy federal borrowing could
fuel inflation and prompt the German Central Bank, the Bundesbank, to keep a
tight monetary policy to choke off a wage-price spiral. Meanwhile, the FRG
has been providing billions of dollars to help the former Soviet republics
and the reformist economies of Eastern Europe.
GDP:
purchasing power equivalent - Federal Republic of Germany: $1,331.4 billion,
per capita $16,700; real growth rate 0.7%; western Germany: $1,235.8
billion, per capita $19,200; real growth rate 3.1%; eastern Germany $95.6
billion, per capita $5,870; real growth rate - 30% (1991 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
West - 3.5% (1991); East - NA%
Unemployment rate:
West - 6.3% (1991); East - 11% (1991)
Budget:
West (federal, state, local) - revenues $684 billion; expenditures $704
billion, including capital expenditures $NA (1990), East - NA
Exports:
West - $324.3 billion (f.o.b., 1989)

:Germany Economy

commodities:
manufactures 86.6% (including machines and machine tools, chemicals, motor
vehicles, iron and steel products), agricultural products 4.9%, raw
materials 2.3%, fuels 1.3%
Exports:
partners:
EC 53.3% (France 12.7%, Netherlands 8.3%, Italy 9.1%, UK 8.3%,
Belgium-Luxembourg 7.3%), other Western Europe 15.9%, US 7.1%, Eastern
Europe 4.1%, OPEC 2.7% (1990)
Imports:
West - $346.5 billion (f.o.b., 1989)
commodities:
manufactures 68.5%, agricultural products 12.0%, fuels 9.7%, raw materials
7.1%
partners:
EC 51.7% (France 11.7%, Netherlands 10.1%, Italy 9.3%, UK 6.7%,
Belgium-Luxembourg 7.2%), other Western Europe 13.4%, US 6.6%, Easte