As is typical, the expansion this year was aided by a waning of an earlier sharp runoff of business inventories. But some other features of the current recovery seem at odds with historical experience. For example, despite the relatively modest pace of output growth, productivity gains have been atypically large this year.
Taking all this together, Germany is a classic example of how market-related adjustments can work and be effective under the rules of a monetary union. BIS Review 56/2007  3