The German economy is the largest in the European Union. It has been the subject of criticism from the Trump administration which, perversely claims that it benefits disproportionately from a “weak Euro” that makes German exports particularly attractive abroad. The Euro peaked in 2008 against the US Dollar at slightly less than $1.6, but it has fallen steadily since early 2014 from $1.4 to stand at about $1.06 today – these falls have been as much due to the perceived strengthening of the US economy as any weakening of the Euro due to the Greek debt crisis and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis (both catalysed by the American inspired Global Financial Crisis, of course). Of course, President Trump wouldn’t want to give any credit to his predecessor for strengthening the US economy who, after all, came to power as the Global Financial Crisis was deepening, taking over from Republican President George Bush.

Germany has recorded a record trade surplus with exports rising by 1.2% to €1.2 trillion for 2016, outpacing the rise of 0.6% seen for imports which came in at €0.95 trillion, pushing the surplus from €244.3 billion in 2015 to €252.9 billion last year.

Germany rejects the claims that it benefits from a weak Euro as deliberate policy, pointing out that monetary policy for the Eurozone is controlled by the European Central Bank which is independent. Wolfgang Schaeuble noted: "The reality is the euro is priced at a level that is a weighted average of all euro zone countries and that will always mean that for some countries that is a too competitive rate leading to a trade surplus and that is certainly the case with Germany."

Germany has attempted to boost domestic demand which would be likely to draw in more imports and so help to balance trade and introduced a minimum wage in 2015 and seen state spending on infrastructure, pensions and “digital” infrastructure increase.