We have also taken a look at the German housing market this year. In seven major cities – Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart – residential property prices climbed by almost a quarter overall between 2009 and 2012 – compared with a rise of just under 5% between 2005 and 2008.
At the same time, "irrational exuberance" about the prospects for the U.S. economy led to heavy financial flows into the United States, and this helped to drive up the value of the U.S. dollar relative to other currencies.