Germany defies global slowdown in 2015 with 1.7% GDP growth

Frankfurt

GERMAN economic growth accelerated in 2015 as record employment and expansionary monetary policy fuelled domestic consumption at a time of weakening global trade.

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.7 per cent after a gain of 1.6 per cent in 2014, the Federal Statistics Office said at a press conference in Berlin on Thursday. That's in line with the median of 21 estimates in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The government had a fiscal surplus of 0.5 per cent of GDP last year.

Germany, the euro area's biggest economy, is benefiting like no other member of the 19-nation currency bloc from unprecedented stimulus by the European Central Bank (ECB). With unemployment at a record low, wages rising and oil more than 37 per cent cheaper than last year, domestic spending has become the driver of economic growth and exporters are shifting their attention from slowing emerging markets to recovering develop…