Overview:
The Federal Republic of Germany is making substantial progress in
integrating and modernizing eastern Germany, but at a heavy economic cost.
Western Germany's growth in 1991 slowed to 3.1% - the lowest rate since 1987
- because of slack world growth and higher interest rates and taxes required
by the unification process. While western Germany's economy was in recession
in the last half of 1991, eastern Germany's economy bottomed out after a
nearly two-year freefall and shows signs of recovery, particularly in the
construction, transportation, and service sectors. Eastern Germany could
begin a fragile recovery later, concentrated in 1992 in construction,
transportation, and services. The two regions remain vastly different,
however, despite eastern Germany's progress. Western Germany has an advanced
market economy and is a world leader in exports. It has a highly urbanized
and skilled population that enjoys excellent living standards, abundant
leisure time, and comprehensive social welfare benefits. Western Germany is
relatively poor in natural resources, coal being the most important mineral.
Western Germany's world-class companies manufacture technologically advanced
goods. The region's economy is mature: services and manufacturing account
for the dominant share of economic activity, and raw materials and
semimanufactured goods constitute a large portion of imports. In recent
years, manufacturing has accounted for about 31% of GDP, with other sectors
contributing lesser amounts. Gross fixed investment in 1990 accounted for
about 21% of GDP. In 1991, GDP in the western region was an estimated
$19,200 per capita. In contrast, eastern Germany's economy is shedding the
obsolete heavy industries that dominated the economy during the Communist
era. Eastern Germany's share of all-German GDP is only about 7%, and eastern
productivity is just 30% that of the west. The privatization agency for
eastern Germany, the Treuhand, is rapidly selling many of the 11,500 firms
under its control. The pace of private investment is starting to pick up,
but questions about property rights and environmental 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%, Eastern
Europe 3.8%, OPEC 2.5% (1990)
External debt:
West - $500 million (June 1988); East - $20.6 billion (1989)
Industrial production:
growth rates, West - 5.4% (1990); East - 30% (1991 est.)
Electricity:
133,000,000 kW capacity; 580,000 million kWh produced, 7,390 kWh per capita
(1991)
Industries:
West - among world's largest producers of iron, steel, coal, cement,
chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics; food and
beverages; East - metal fabrication, chemicals, brown coal, shipbuilding,
machine building, food and beverages, textiles, petroleum refining
Agriculture:
West - accounts for about 2% of GDP (including fishing and forestry);
diversified crop and livestock farming; principal crops and livestock
include potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbage, cattle, pigs,
poultry; net importer of food; fish catch of 202,000 metric tons in 1987;
East - accounts for about 10% of GDP (including fishing and forestry);
principal crops - wheat, rye, barley, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit;
livestock products include pork, beef, chicken, milk, hides and skins; net
importer of food; fish catch of 193,600 metric tons in 1987
Economic aid:
West - donor - ODA and OOF commitments (1970-89), $75.5 billion; East -
donor - $4.0 billion extended bilaterally to non-Communist less developed
countries (1956-89)
Currency:
deutsche mark (plural - deutsche marks); 1 deutsche mark (DM) = 100 pfennige
Exchange rates:
deutsche marks (DM) per US$1 - 1.6611 (March 1992), 1.6595 (1991), 1.6157
(1990), 1.8800 (1989), 1.7562 (1988), 1.7974 (1987)
Fiscal year:
calendar year
:Germany Communications
Railroads:
West - 31,443 km total; 27,421 km government owned, 1.435-meter standard
gauge (12,491 km double track, 11,501 km electrified); 4,022 km
nongovernment owned, including 3,598 km 1.435-meter standard gauge (214 km
electrified) and 424 km 1.000-meter gauge (186 km electrified); East -
14,025 km total; 13,750 km 1.435-meter standard gauge, 275 km 1.000-meter or
other narrow gauge; 3,830 (est.) km 1.435-meter standard gauge double-track;
3,475 km overhead electrified (1988)
Highways:
West - 466,305 km total; 169,568 km primary, includes 6,435 km autobahn,
32,460 km national highways (Bundesstrassen), 65,425 km state highways
(Landesstrassen), 65,248 km county roads (Kreisstrassen); 296,737 km of
secondary communal roads (Gemeindestrassen); East - 124,604 km total; 47,203
km concrete, asphalt, stone block, of which 1,855 km are autobahn and
limited access roads, 11,326 are trunk roads, and 34,022 are regional roads;
77,401 municipal roads (1988)
Inland waterways:
West - 5,222 km, of which almost 70% are usable by craft of 1,000-metric ton
capacity or larger; major rivers include the Rhine and Elbe; Kiel Canal is
an important connection between the Baltic Sea and North Sea; East - 2,319
km (1988)
Pipelines:
crude oil 3,644 km; petroleum products 3,946 km; natural gas 97,564 km
(1988)
Ports:
maritime - Bremerhaven, Brunsbuttel, Cuxhaven, Emden, Bremen, Hamburg, Kiel,
Lubeck, Wilhelmshaven, Rostock, Wismar, Stralsund, Sassnitz; inland - 31
major
Merchant marine:
607 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 5,210,060 GRT/6,626,333 DWT; includes
3 passenger, 5 short-sea passenger, 324 cargo, 10 refrigerated cargo, 135
container, 31 roll-on/roll-off cargo, 5 railcar carrier, 6 barge carrier, 11
oil tanker, 21 chemical tanker, 22 liquefied gas tanker, 5 combination
ore/oil, 14 combination bulk, 15 bulk; note - the German register includes
ships of the former East and West Germany; during 1991 the fleet underwent
major restructuring as surplus ships were sold off
Civil air:
239 major transport aircraft
Airports:
462 total, 455 usable; 242 with permanent-surface runways; 4 with runways
over 3,659 m; 40 with runways 2,440-3,659 m; 55 with runways 1,220-2,439 m
Telecommunications:
West - highly developed, modern telecommunication service to all parts of
the country; fully adequate in all respects; 40,300,000 telephones;
intensively developed, highly redundant cable and radio relay networks, all
completely automatic; broadcast stations - 80 AM, 470 FM, 225 (6,000
repeaters) TV; 6 submarine coaxial cables; satellite earth stations - 12
Atlantic Ocean INTELSAT antennas, 2 Indian Ocean INTELSAT antennas,
EUTELSAT, and domestic systems; 2 HF radiocommunication centers;
tropospheric links East - badly needs modernization; 3,970,000 telephones;
broadcast stations - 23 AM, 17 FM, 21 TV (15 Soviet TV repeaters); 6,181,860
TVs; 6,700,000 radios; 1 satellite earth station operating in INTELSAT and
Intersputnik systems
:Germany Defense Forces
Branches:
Army, Navy, Air Force, Federal Border Police
Manpower availability:
males 15-49, 20,300,359; 17,612,677 fit for military service; 414,330 reach
military age (18) annually
Defense expenditures:
exchange rate conversion - $39.5 billion, 2.5% of GDP (1991)
:Ghana Geography
Total area:
238,540 km2
Land area:
230,020 km2
Comparative area:
slightly smaller than Oregon
Land boundaries:
2,093 km; Burkina 548 km, Ivory Coast 668 km, Togo 877 km
Coastline:
539 km
Maritime claims:
Contiguous zone:
24 nm
Continental shelf:
200 nm
Exclusive economic zone:
200 nm
Territorial sea:
12 nm
Disputes:
none
Climate:
tropical; warm and comparatively dry along southeast coast; hot and humid in
southwest; hot and dry in north
Terrain:
mostly low plains with dissected plateau in south-central area
Natural resources:
gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber
Land use:
arable land 5%; permanent crops 7%; meadows and pastures 15%; forest and
woodland 37%; other 36%; includes irrigated NEGL%
Environment:
recent drought in north severely affecting marginal agricultural activities;
deforestation; overgrazing; soil erosion; dry, northeasterly harmattan wind
(January to March)
Note:
Lake Volta is the world's largest artificial lake
:Ghana People