Photo Gallery The German Export Boom
After suffering mightily during the financial crisis and ensuing economic downturn, German exports are in demand once again. But not everyone welcomes the turnaround.
Many accuse Germany of relying too heavily on exports and of keeping them artificially cheap through relatively low wages. Here, workers loading a Porsche Panamera into the freight bay of a Boeing 747-400 in Leipzig.
The US argues that Germany should do more to stimulate domestic demand as a way to even out trade imbalances. Berlin has refused. Here, a ship carrying new Ford Fiestas down the Rhine after being produced in Cologne.
Some in the US have accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of not doing its share to ensure that the fragile recovery of the global economy continues. Here, Merkel with US President Barack Obama in Washington in April.
Merkel argues that nations with trade deficits are just as much to blame for global imbalances. People in countries with deficits, she says, have lived beyond their means for years, buying cars, houses and stocks on credit while governments did nothing to slow their greed. Here, a worker in a Siemens factory putting the finishing touches on a turbine.
Furthermore, Merkel says, Germany should be praised for trying to bring down debt and deficits for coming generations, paticularly in the face of a growing demographic problem. Here, the port of Hamburg.
