The Weekly Activity Index (WAI) for the German economy demonstrated significant volatility between January 2021 and August 2025. The index hit its lowest point at ***** percent during the 10th week of 2021, then surged dramatically to peak at **** percent in the 24th week of that year. Following this peak, the WAI declined substantially throughout the second half of 2021, though it recovered modestly to close the year at **** percent. The index faced another sharp decline in early 2022 and remained below zero until mid-2023. During 2024, the WAI exhibited pronounced fluctuations, trending upward in the first half of the year before reversing course in the second half. The pattern continued into 2025, with a gradual decrease persisting until approximately the 30th week, after which the index began to recover, reaching a value of **** percent in the 45th week of 2025. What is the weekly activity index? The weekly activity index (WAI) is a weekly index designed to measure real economic activity in Germany. It is calculated as a common component from various indicators, such as industrial output, GDP, electricity consumption, credit card payments, and other high-frequency indicators. Positive values in the index indicate above average growth in real economic activity, while negative values signal a decline in economic output.

Graph and download economic data for OECD based Recession Indicators for Germany from the Peak through the Trough (DISCONTINUED) (DEURECDM) from 1960-02-01 to 2022-09-30 about peak, trough, recession indicators, and Germany.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Germany stagnated 0 percent in the third quarter of 2025 over the previous quarter. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - Germany GDP Growth Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Across the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union, gross domestic products (GDP) decreased in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, by 2021, growth rates were positive in all four areas again. The United Kingdom, Germany, and the European Union all experiencing slow economic growth in 2023 amid high inflation, with Germany even seeing an economic recession. GDP and its components GDP refers to the total market value of all goods and services that are produced within a country per year. It is composed of government spending, consumption, business investments and net exports. It is an important indicator to measure the economic strength of a country. Economists rely on a variety of factors when predicting the future performance of the GDP. Inflation rate is one of the economic indicators providing insight into the future behavior of households, which make up a significant proportion of GDP. Projections are based on the past performance of such information. Future considerations Some factors can be more easily predicted than others. For example, projections of the annual inflation rate of the United States are easy to come by. However, the intensity and impact of something like Brexit is difficult to predict. Moreover, the occurrence and impact of events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine is difficult to foresee. Hence, actual GDP growth may be higher or lower than the original estimates.

This article shows how the network structure of economic expertise can influence the diffusion of ideas in economic policymaking. Applying social network analysis, we analyse the networks of economic policy advice in the United States and Germany around the Council of Economic Advisors and the Sachverständigenrat. With the help of co-publication and institutional affiliation data, we argue that the more fragmented structure of academic expertise in Germany hindered the diffusion of new ideas and fostered continuity in the austerity paradigm. In contrast, the more connected structure of economic expertise in the United States facilitated the diffusion of ideas and changes in dominant ideas about economic intervention.

Attitude of Americans to West Germany and economic questions.

Topics: Assessment of personal economic situation in comparison over time; judgement on the regional, national and international economic situation; assessment of the world political situation; trust in economic development; price development; recession; development of unemployment; judgement on social security and provision for one´s old age; attitude to the FRG and Germans; judgement on the reliability of the Germans in the western alliance; attitude to the division of Germany and the Berlin problem; attitude to purchase of products from Germany, France and Japan; party preference; actual and desired number of children.

Demography: age; marital status; number of children; religious denomination; religiousness; school education; vocational training; occupation; employment; income; household income; size of household; head of household; possession of durable economic goods.

Interviewer rating: race of respondent; housing situation and neighborhood.

The aim of the present study is to get insights of the postulated correlation between ‘basic innovations’ and ‘growth industry’ on the basis of the industrial net production’s growth rates of 50 industrial branches. It is demonstrated, that the growth industries of the 1950s and 1960s are identical with those industries, which has been affected by significant basic innovations in the 1930s and 1940s (plastics processing, oil industry, aircraft construction, electrical engineering, chemical industry, and vehicle construction). At the same time it is shown that the phenomenon of economic recession at the end of the 1970s coincides with the relative stagnation of these growth industries. Following the published research results on the historical emergence of basic innovations by Gerhard Mensch in 1977 (see: Mensch, G., 1977: Das technologische Patt – Innovationen überwinden die Depression. Frankfurt/M.) the investigator Kleinknecht developed hypotheses and first examination steps for an innovation theoretical interpretation of longer trend periods of economic growth. The researcher Mensch showed, that basic innovations on particular time points become more frequent (by about 1830/40, by about 1885 and by about 1935). These time points emerged in a period, which was discussed in the literature as phase of weaker economic development. According to the innovation theorists these basic innovations would create new markets and growth industries (in the case of product innovations) and existing industries change radically (in the case of process innovations). Due to the diffusion of new products or production processes sectoral growth spurts may occur, which extend over several economic cycles and therefore enables stable economic growth. In periods of accelerated economic growth only few new basic innovations are enforceable and accordingly an insufficient amount of new growth industries occurs. The economy would experience a period of instable growth and increased crise-prone which follows after the end of the sectoral growth spurts. This period of technological stand-off can only be resolved by new impulses of basic innovations. If this thesis carries a certain reality, it would be possible to show that during the periods of stronger economic growth these industries respectively emerge, which experienced weaker growth in past periods an which had been affected by basic innovations or which were developed by basic innovations. Drawing from an investment function, in which the development of industrial profit rates is defined as fundamental aspect of investments and growth, it would be possible to demonstrate, that basic innovations have a fundamental and positive effect on profit rates (return on capital) and its determinants. The hypotheses are tested using the example of the West German economy development between 1950 and 1977. The investigator Kleinknecht tied in with a casebook of basic innovations in the 1930s and 1940s, collected by Gerhard Mensch (1977). In his analysis Kleinknecht act on the assumption, that most of the basic innovations, which have been catched on after the strong economy crisis in 1929/32, principally developed their growth potential during the 1950s and the 1960s. In the first step single cases of basic innovation has been allocated to those branches of industry, which has been concerned with the production of innovative products in a decisive way or which has integrated process innovations in their production. As categorization system the list of industrial groups and industrial sectors („Verzeichnis der Industriegruppen und –zweige“) was used, which has been also taken as a basis for the development of statistical indices series for 48 sectors of the processing industry and the mining industry by the German Institute of Economic Research (Deutschen Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW, Berlin)). Kleinknecht refers in his work to these series of the DIW, when he analyzes the industrial production, the capital output ratio, etc. . For the analysis of the growth rates of 48 West German industrial sectors (manufacturing Industry and mining) the growth rates of the industrial net production at constant prices, calculated in the study of Krengel et al., were used and in the following calculated for the whole period of investigation and for subdivided time frames of the investigation period. The subdivided time frames corresponds the economic cycles between 1950 and 1977. Datatables in the search- and downloadsystem HISTAT (Topic: Growth, Economic Cycles, and Crisis = Wachstum, Konjunktur und Krisen): Annotation: HISTAT is offered in German. A. Identifikation der Wachstumsindustrien (Produktionszuwächse): A.01a Durchschnittliche jährliche Zuwächse der industriellen Nettoproduktion nach Industriezweigen (1950-1973) A.01b Relative Beiträge der einzelnen Zweige zum Gesamtzuwachs der Industrieproduktion nach Industriezweigen (1950-1973) A.02 Zyklendurchschnittliche Zuwächse der ´Inno...

With a Gross Domestic Product of over 4.3 trillion Euros, the German economy was by far the largest in Europe in 2024. The similarly sized economies of the United Kingdom and France were the second and third largest economies in Europe during this year, followed by Italy and Spain. The smallest economy in this statistic is that of the small Balkan nation of Montenegro, which had a GDP of 7.4 billion Euros. In this year, the combined GDP of the 27 member states that compose the European Union amounted to approximately 17.95 trillion Euros. The big five Germany’s economy has consistently had the largest economy in Europe since 1980, even before the reunification of West and East Germany. The United Kingdom, by contrast, has had mixed fortunes during the same period and had a smaller economy than Italy in the late 1980s. The UK also suffered more than the other major economies during the recession of the late 2000s, meaning the French economy was the second largest on the continent for some time afterward. The Spanish economy was continually the fifth-largest in Europe in this 38-year period, and from 2004 onwards, has been worth more than one trillion Euros. The smallest GDP, the highest economic growth in Europe Despite having the smallerst GDP of Europe, Montenegro emerged as the fastest growing economy in the continent, achieving an impressive annual growth rate of 4.5 percent, surpassing Turkey's growth rate of 4 percent. Overall,this Balkan nation has shown a remarkable economic recovery since the 2010 financial crisis, with its GDP projected to grow by 28.71 percent between 2024 and 2029. Contributing to this positive trend are successful tourism seasons in recent years, along with increased private consumption and rising imports. Europe's economic stagnation Malta, Albania, Iceland, and Croatia were among the countries reporting some of the highest growth rates this year. However, Europe's overall performance reflected a general slowdown in growth compared to the trend seen in 2021, during the post-pandemic recovery. Estonia experienced the sharpest negative growth in 2023, with its economy shrinking by 2.3% compared to 2022, primarily due to the negative impact of sanctions placed on its large neighbor, Russia. Other nations, including Sweden, Germany, and Finland, also recorded slight negative growth.

Although it was not a united country until 1871, industrialization across Germany began in the early 1800s, and it quickly saw Germany emerge as a Great Power in Europe. German industrialization was largely driven by coal and steel production, of which Germany had rich deposits, and these were used in construction and infrastructure to modernize the country. The mechanization of agriculture also fed into this, as many people from rural regions flocked to cities in search of work. Many of the coal and iron deposits were located in Germany's west, particularly around the Rhine and Ruhr regions, and industry here benefitted from strong rail and water transport networks. Today, with over five million inhabitants, the Ruhr region is the most populous metropolitan area in the country, largely due to these developments. While Germany was among the most advanced nations in the world by the end of the 19th century, industrial output grew higher still in the 20th; between 1896 and 1913, industrial output in Germany doubled. Interwar turmoil After the First World War, Germany lost its resource rich territories of Alsace-Lorraine and the Saarland, while the Rhine and Ruhr regions were also occupied by France, and much of its industrial output was sent to other countries as war reparations. Hyperinflation in 1923 also saw the collapse of the German economy, and it was not until the late-1920s that economic recovery from the war truly began, although this was also short-lived. As Germany had been dependent on financial aid from the U.S. in order to recover and meet its reparation payments, the Great Depression in the U.S. had dire consequences for the German economy. From 1929 until 1932, industrial output fell once more, and many historians point to this economic difficulty as a catalyst for the rise of nationalism and fascism in Germany. The Nazi Party then ascended to power in 1933, the year the Depression ended, and the economy was restructured to support a war of expansion. Among other factors, this involved tax breaks for large businesses, allowing cartels to control local business, increasing average working hours, and prioritizing industrial employment by importing food from the east. The strength of Germany's industry then allowed the Axis powers to take control of most of Europe during the Second World War, but it was ultimately defeated by 1945. Post-war split Following the war, Germany was split into two separate states; commonly referred to as East and West Germany. The west was a liberal democracy with a free-market economy, while the east was a communist state with a command economy, yet both became leaders in their respective trading blocks during the Cold War. When looking at industrial growth over the next three decades, using output in 1963 as a benchmark, East Germany's output grew over nine times larger from 1949 to 1975, whereas West Germany's grew by a factor of six. It is important to remember, however, that the west was larger, more populous, and starting from a more industrially developed point than the east, therefore it was consistently more advanced. The West also had fewer restrictions placed on it from other nations after the war, and it played a leading role in European integration; whereas the East was influenced more heavily by the USSR and it had less trade with other advanced nations, which hindered its technological development. West Germany's output took a hit in the 1970s due to the 1973-1975 Recession, whereas the East's economy was protected as it had little trade with the U.S. and its partners. However, the West quickly recovered and economic stagnation in the East throughout the 1980s would contribute to the eventual collapse of the Eastern Bloc, and Germany was officially reunified in 1990.

The aim of the present study is to get insights of the postulated correlation between ‘basic innovations’ and ‘growth industry’ on the basis of the industrial net production’s growth rates of 50 industrial branches.
It is demonstrated, that the growth industries of the 1950s and 1960s are identical with those industries, which has been affected by significant basic innovations in the 1930s and 1940s (plastics processing, oil industry, aircraft construction, electrical engineering, chemical industry, and vehicle construction).
At the same time it is shown that the phenomenon of economic recession at the end of the 1970s coincides with the relative stagnation of these growth industries.

Following the published research results on the historical emergence of basic innovations by Gerhard Mensch in 1977 (see: Mensch, G., 1977: Das technologische Patt – Innovationen überwinden die Depression. Frankfurt/M.) the investigator Kleinknecht developed hypotheses and first examination steps for an innovation theoretical interpretation of longer trend periods of economic growth. The researcher Mensch showed, that basic innovations on particular time points become more frequent (by about 1830/40, by about 1885 and by about 1935). These time points emerged in a period, which was discussed in the literature as phase of weaker economic development. According to the innovation theorists these basic innovations would create new markets and growth industries (in the case of product innovations) and existing industries change radically (in the case of process innovations). Due to the diffusion of new products or production processes sectoral growth spurts may occur, which extend over several economic cycles and therefore enables stable economic growth. In periods of accelerated economic growth only few new basic innovations are enforceable and accordingly an insufficient amount of new growth industries occurs. The economy would experience a period of instable growth and increased crise-prone which follows after the end of the sectoral growth spurts. This period of technological stand-off can only be resolved by new impulses of basic innovations.

If this thesis carries a certain reality, it would be possible to show that during the periods of stronger economic growth these industries respectively emerge, which experienced weaker growth in past periods an which had been affected by basic innovations or which were developed by basic innovations. Drawing from an investment function, in which the development of industrial profit rates is defined as fundamental aspect of investments and growth, it would be possible to demonstrate, that basic innovations have a fundamental and positive effect on profit rates (return on capital) and its determinants. The hypotheses are tested using the example of the West German economy development between 1950 and 1977. The investigator Kleinknecht tied in with a casebook of basic innovations in the 1930s and 1940s, collected by Gerhard Mensch (1977). In his analysis Kleinknecht act on the assumption, that most of the basic innovations, which have been catched on after the strong economy crisis in 1929/32, principally developed their growth potential during the 1950s and the 1960s.

In the first step single cases of basic innovation has been allocated to those branches of industry, which has been concerned with the production of innovative products in a decisive way or which has integrated process innovations in their production. As categorization system the list of industrial groups and industrial sectors („Verzeichnis der Industriegruppen und –zweige“) was used, which has been also taken as a basis for the development of statistical indices series for 48 sectors of the processing industry and the mining industry by the German Institute of Economic Research (Deutschen Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW, Berlin)). Kleinknecht refers in his work to these series of the DIW, when he analyzes the industrial production, the capital output ratio, etc. . For the analysis of the growth rates of 48 West German industrial sectors (manufacturing Industry and mining) the growth rates of the industrial net production at constant prices, calculated in the study of Krengel et al., were used and in the following calculated for the whole period of investigation and for subdivided time frames of the investigation period. The subdivided time frames corresponds the economic cycles between 1950 and 1977.

Datatables in ...

Turnover trends in the salt extraction industry have been ambivalent over the past five years. Industry turnover has fallen by an average of 1.3% per year since 2019. This development was favoured by the sharp rise in demand for salt following the economic recession triggered by the coronavirus crisis. Increased demand, which led to a rise in the market price for salt and thus to significantly higher revenues for salt producers, also played a key role. The decline in revenue during the 2020 pandemic was more than compensated for by the additional income. In 2024, the industry is expected to record total revenue of €643.4 million, which corresponds to a decline of 10.1% compared to 2023. The reason for the decline in turnover is the expected milder winter this year. When there is little snowfall and hardly any black ice, the demand for road salt, the industry's top-selling product, decreases. The domestic market is mainly dominated by two large groups, K+S AG and Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG. However, foreign producers are also entering the German market and selling road salt products to municipalities and federal states. IBISWorld expects industry turnover to grow over the next five years. Turnover should grow by an average of 1.1% per year and amount to 679.1 million euros in 2029. Demand for industrial and commercial salts should remain largely stable and have a positive impact on the industry's business. In contrast, the development of demand for road salt is difficult to forecast due to its dependence on the weather. However, climate change and the increase in mild winters suggest a slightly negative trend in this segment. In order to tap into new sources of revenue, salt mines are trying to find further uses for disused salt mines.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of all G7 countries decreased sharply in 2009 and 2020 due to the financial crisis and COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. The growth decline was heavier after the COVID-19 pandemic than the financial crisis. Moreover, Italy had a negative GDP growth rate in 2012 and 2013 following the euro crisis. In 2023, Germany experienced an economic recession.

During the "Golden Age of Capitalism", from 1950 to 1973, GDP grew by annual averages of just under five percent in Western Europe*, four percent in the U.S., and ten percent in Japan. This period of prosperity came to an end with the recession of 1973-1975, however GDP growth rates did not return to their previous levels when the recession ended, as growth was fairly sporadic in the 1970s and then much slower throughout the 1980s. From 1973 to 1987, GDP grew annually at just two fifth of the Golden Age's rate in Europe and Japan, while the U.S.' annual rates were somewhat closer.

One major difference between the two given periods was that the U.S. was the dominant and most influential economy of all developed (non-communist) countries in the 1950s and 1960s, however, the 1970s and 1980s saw Japan and the European Communities (led by West Germany and France) emerge as major economic powers in their own right. While the U.S. remained the most powerful country in the world, other developed nations became more economically autonomous, and began asserting their own influence internationally.

The statistic shows the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States from 1987 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. The gross domestic product of the United States in 2024 amounted to around 29.18 trillion U.S. dollars. The United States and the economy The United States’ economy is by far the largest in the world; a status which can be determined by several key factors, one being gross domestic product: A look at the GDP of the main industrialized and emerging countries shows a significant difference between US GDP and the GDP of China, the runner-up in the ranking, as well as the followers Japan, Germany and France. Interestingly, it is assumed that China will have surpassed the States in terms of GDP by 2030, but for now, the United States is among the leading countries in almost all other relevant rankings and statistics, trade and employment for example. See the U.S. GDP growth rate here. Just like in other countries, the American economy suffered a severe setback when the economic crisis occurred in 2008. The American economy entered a recession caused by the collapsing real estate market and increasing unemployment. Despite this, the standard of living is considered quite high; life expectancy in the United States has been continually increasing slightly over the past decade, the unemployment rate in the United States has been steadily recovering and decreasing since the crisis, and the Big Mac Index, which represents the global prices for a Big Mac, a popular indicator for the purchasing power of an economy, shows that the United States’ purchasing power in particular is only slightly lower than that of the euro area.

As of April 16, 2025, Germany's bond market displayed a positive spread of 77.2 basis points between 10-year and 2-year yields, indicating long-term rates above short-term ones. The 5-year versus 2-year spread was also positive, at **** basis points. On the other hand, the 2-year versus 1-year spread was negative, at **** basis points, suggesting a mildly inverted yield curve in shorter maturities. Negative spreads indicate a (partially) inverted yield curve. This often signals investor pessimism about short-term economic prospects, as investors seek the relative safety of long-term bonds, pushing those yields down relative to shorter-term bonds. An inverted yield curve is typically interpreted as a potential indicator of economic slowdown or recession, as it reflects expectations of lower interest rates in the future to stimulate the economy.

The gross domestic product of the United Kingdom in 2024 was around 2.78 trillion British pounds, an increase when compared to the previous year, when UK GDP amounted to about 2.75 trillion pounds. The significant drop in GDP visible in 2020 was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the smaller declines in 2008 and 2009 because of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s. Low growth problem in the UK Despite growing by 0.9 percent in 2024, and 0.4 percent in 2023 the UK economy is not that much larger than it was before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since recovering from a huge fall in GDP in the second quarter of 2020, the UK economy has alternated between periods of contraction and low growth, with the UK even in a recession at the end of 2023. While economic growth picked up somewhat in 2024, GDP per capita is lower than it was in 2022, following two years of negative growth. UK's global share of GDP falling As of 2024, the UK had the sixth-largest economy in the world, behind the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India. Among European nations, this meant that the UK currently has the second-largest economy in Europe, although the economy of France, Europe's third-largest economy, is of a similar size. The UK's global economic ranking will likely fall in the coming years, however, with the UK's share of global GDP expected to fall from 2.16 percent in 2025 to 2.02 percent by 2029.  

In terms of net material product* (the Soviet version of GDP), industrial growth rates in the Eastern Bloc in the early 1970s were fairly consistent, before a series of conflicts in the Middle East saw oil prices soar and sporadic recessions spread across Europe in the subsequent decade. Poland and Romania experienced the highest growth rates in the early years due to their reliance on Western investment; however, this would prove detrimental in the years to come. Other nations such as East Germany and Bulgaria saw more modest and consistent growth throughout these two decades, although all countries experienced recession with the collapse of European communism in the late 1980s Poland The reason for Poland's dramatic decline between 1978 and 1981 was due to the foreign debt accumulated by Poland under the Gierek regime (1970-1980), as the government attempted to modernize Poland's industry and establish trade links outside of the COMECON. As the West prospered, so too did Poland. However, the Recession of 1973-1975 hit the West much harder than the Eastern Bloc. This recession had a knock-on effect on Poland, causing the price of western imports to increase, the demand for Polish exports to drop, and creditors began to demand repayment, which led to further borrowing.

Economic hardship then exposed the instability and ineffectiveness of Poland's industrial sector, and the relatively progressive policies of the Gierek administration allowed trade unions to emerge in ways that were not possible in other Eastern Bloc countries. Solidarity emerged as the most powerful of these trade unions in 1980, with ten million members (of a total population of 35 million) at its peak; the government's implementation of martial law in an attempt to subdue Solidarity's influence then led to further sanctions from the West. As restrictions eased and economic aid arrived from the Soviet Union, Poland's net material product then grew from 1983 onwards. However, it fluctuated on a downward trend until communism's end in June 1989.

Between 1946 and 1961, the United States distributed over 44.5 billion U.S. dollars to Western European countries in the form of loans or grants. 27.3 billion was given in the form of economic assistance, while 17.2 billion was given as military assistance. The largest sums were given to the United Kingdom and France, who received 8.8 and 8.4 billion dollars respectively. Italy and West Germany, who had been enemies of the U.S. during the Second World War, received the next-largest sums, with both totals over five billion dollars. Disproportional distributions Such grants and loans, particularly those of the Marshall Plan, were distributed on a (fairly rough) per capita basis, although major industrial powers were given disproportionately higher sums, as it was believed that their successful recovery would drive prosperity across the region. Turkey and Greece were also given relatively high sums due to their political and strategic significance during the Cold War, with Turkey receiving significantly more in military assistance than economic. In contrast, Spain received a disproportionately low sum - despite being neutral during the war, Franco's fascist government was unpopular in the U.S. and was excluded from aid in the years immediately following the war; the Spanish government's strong anti-communist saw the U.S. revert this policy with the Pact of Madrid in 1953. The Golden Age The "Golden Age" was a period of relatively uninterrupted economic growth between the end of the Second World War in 1945 and the Recession of 1973-1975. During this time, Western Europe experienced its most economically successful period in recorded history. This success was made possible by various factors, including an increase in European integration, the expansion of welfare and healthcare systems, and widespread industrialization. The United States played a key role in these developments; however, the modern historical consensus is that the largest impact was not through government investment, but rather private investment and the American influence on business practice, consumer buying behavior, and international policy (critics at the time referred to this as Coca-colonization). Along with the new-found peace following decades of war and instability, these factors combined to increase living standards and wages among the public, who generally embraced capitalism and the opportunity to spend their new-found disposable income.

The statistic shows the growth of the real gross domestic product (GDP) in India from 2020 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. GDP refers to the total market value of all goods and services that are produced within a country per year. It is an important indicator of the economic strength of a country. Real GDP is adjusted for price changes and is therefore regarded as a key indicator for economic growth. In 2024, India's real gross domestic product growth was at about 6.46 percent compared to the previous year. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in India Recent years have witnessed a shift of economic power and attention to the strengthening economies of the BRIC countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The growth rate of gross domestic product in the BRIC countries is overwhelmingly larger than in traditionally strong economies, such as the United States and Germany. While the United States can claim the title of the largest economy in the world by almost any measure, China nabs the second-largest share of global GDP, with India racing Japan for third-largest position. Despite the world-wide recession in 2008 and 2009, India still managed to record impressive GDP growth rates, especially when most of the world recorded negative growth in at least one of those years. Part of the reason for India’s success is the economic liberalization that started in 1991and encouraged trade subsequently ending some public monopolies. GDP growth has slowed in recent years, due in part to skyrocketing inflation. India’s workforce is expanding in the industry and services sectors, growing partially because of international outsourcing — a profitable venture for the Indian economy. The agriculture sector in India is still a global power, producing more wheat or tea than anyone in the world except for China. However, with the mechanization of a lot of processes and the rapidly growing population, India’s unemployment rate remains relatively high.

The European Union has moved from a trade deficit for goods during the period from 2004 until the end of the Great Recession (2008-2010), to a substantial trade surplus over the later 2010s and early 2020s. The EU had been running a trade deficit as consumption was high during the economic boom which led up to the recession and Eurozone crisis (2010-2012), while the Euro had been appreciating against other currencies during this time, making exports less attractive for trading partners and imports less expensive in Eurozone countries. With the dampening of global demand during the recession, Europe's deficit contracted, with the dramatic reduction in imports outweighing the reduction in exports to the rest of the world. Later, during the 2010s, the EU began to run a trade surplus due to the suppressed demand for imports in the EU via economic policies which favored austerity and lower consumption, a depreciating Euro after 2014 which made EU exports cheaper for trading partners, and structural policies of EU member states, such as Germany, who have prioritized the competitiveness of their export sectors.