Re: Japan and Germany

["William F. Hummel" <wfhummel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sven Larson wrote:

>Paul Pihllips is very much right in criticizing export-related
>comparisons between Germany and Japan. About 90% of EU member states'
>exports is intra-union and with the ongoing integration here the meaning
>of accounting for that export as "export" is lost bit by bit.

I think you need to check your facts.  According to the New York
Times Almanac, 57.7% of German exports were with EU member states
in 1997.  The remaining 42.3% involved trading in currencies that
are not pegged to the euro or the d-mark.

Based on the figures I quoted in another post, this means that
German exports to non-EU states was 12.7% of GDP in 1997.  That
is only marginally less than the 14.3% of GDP for all of Japanese
exports in that year.

I think those who dismiss the comparison between Japan and
Germany regarding the issue of export-led economies may be
fooling themselves.

William F Hummel