Econintersect:  Lower oil prices and a weaker euro are being credited with boosting the German economy in the fourth quarter as private consumption rose 0.8%, capital investment jumped 1.2% and exports climbed 1.3% to lead a GDP increase of 0.7%. All numbers are quarter-over-quarter. Also helping the economy, especially on the private consumption front, was the largest increase in real wages (+1.6%) in at least six years. How much longer is not known because the data has only been reported since 2008.

The real GDP growth for 2014 was 1.44%, more than the 2013 increase of 1.14%.

The real GDP growth by quarter is shown in the first graph below for the last three years.  The second graph shows the ten-year history.

For comparison the ten-year real GDP graph is shown for the U.S. Germany (14.7% cummulative growth) and the U.S. (15.9%) have similar ten-year cummulative GDP records.