Global Trends - Germany

As a major player in the international trade market Germany has had to create an economic strategy and business environment conducive to the needs of the region to remain competitive and economically profitable. To do this Germany has to keep up with global and regional trends that appeal to its consumers, suppliers, and manufacturing partners. These trends include macroeconomic positioning, upholding trade relations, keeping up with environmental issues, structuring the country’s supply chain, and keeping up with technological advancements. This analysis focuses the global and regional trends that have had a positive effect on Germany’s economy, value chain, and marketing efforts.

Macroeconomic Trends

Macroeconomics is the study of trends and movements in the economy focusing on economy wide phenomena including national income, unemployment fluctuations, gross domestic product, rate of growth, pricing levels, and inflation rates. (Investopedia, 2012) According to Global and Transnational Business: Strategy and Management, “a major purpose of macro environmental analysis is to identify both the similarities and differences that exist between countries” (Campbell, 2004).

Macroeconomic data shows that Germany has seen positive economic development in the recent years. Gross domestic product grew in 2007 by 2.5%; however, economic trends were not as strong as a result of the increase in VAT. Germany’s main impetus came from the domestic market, a trend affect the entire euro zone. Economic trends favorably affected the employment market with 27.46 million people employed in November of 2007 reflecting a 2.0% increase from the previous year; however, cost of living in the country increases rapidly as a result of a significant increase in VAT, oil prices, and the cost of staple foods. Germany’s inflation rate for the same year was 2.2% (The Linde Group, 2007).

Environmental Trends

Germany is a country dedicated to the preservation of the...