Yesterday, in Fundamentals and the Recovery, I offered up a snapshot of the recovery in the United States in terms of industrial production, income, employment, and retail sales.
Today, I thought I’d at least temporarily jettison my overly Americentric view of the investment universe and look at the recovery in the same areas through the eyes of Germany. As the graphic below shows, relative to past periods of economic recovery, the current recovery looks more typical than atypical. With a continued weak euro, I would not at all be surprised to see the performance of the German economy to begin to accelerate to the upside, which would bode well for the Germany ETF, EWG.
Of course, the bigger issue may turn out to be the exposure of German banks to Greece and some of the other troubled euro zone economies, per a recent Wall Street Journal, Data Show Big Exposure for Banks in Euro Zone.
For more on related subjects, readers are encouraged to check out:
- Recent Performance Divergence in European ETFs
- Fundamentals and the Recovery
- Chart of the Week: A Broader Look at the U.S. Economic Recovery
- Chart of the Week: Four Key Economic Indicators
- Chart of the Week: Retail Sales Recovering
[source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis]
Disclosure(s): none