Furthermore, the non-accelerating rate of unemployment, or NAIRU, could also fall in Germany. In the United States all the signs indicate that the NAIRU declined significantly during the long boom. According to the Bundesbank’s calculations, which may like other calculations be regarded with some degree of uncertainty, NAIRU has risen in Germany almost throughout the entire period since the end of the seventies.
In western Germany, it is likely to have been above 8% towards the end of the 1990s. When I now come to the second area of my comments, “Growth and Productivity”, I do not have to tell you about the US economy’s success story in the 1990s. It is well-known to you.