|
Agriculture
>
Products
|
NA
|
potatoes, wheat, barley, sugar beets, fruit, cabbages; cattle, pigs, poultry
|
|
|
Currency
|
Australian dollar
|
euro
|
|
|
Overview
|
The main economic activities on Christmas Island are the mining of low grade phosphate, limited tourism, the provision of government services and more recently the construction and operation of the Immigration Detention Center. The government sector includes administration, health, education, policing, customs, quarantine and defense.
|
The German economy - the fifth largest economy in the world in PPP terms and Europe's largest - is a leading exporter of machinery, vehicles, chemicals, and household equipment and benefits from a highly skilled labor force. Like its Western European neighbors, Germany faces significant demographic challenges to sustained long-term growth. Low fertility rates and declining net immigration are increasing pressure on the country's social welfare system and necessitate structural reforms. Reforms launched by the government of Chancellor Gerhard SCHROEDER (1998-2005), deemed necessary to address chronically high unemployment and low average growth, contributed to strong growth in 2006 and 2007 and falling unemployment. These advances, as well as a government subsidized, reduced working hour scheme, help explain the relatively modest increase in unemployment during the 2008-09 recession - the deepest since World War II - and its decrease to 6.5% in 2012. GDP contracted 5.1% in 2009 but grew by 4.2% in 2010, and 3.0% in 2011, before dipping to 0.7% in 2012 - a reflection of low investment spending due to crisis-induced uncertainty and the decreased demand for German exports from recession-stricken periphery countries. Stimulus and stabilization efforts initiated in 2008 and 2009 and tax cuts introduced in Chancellor Angela MERKEL's second term increased Germany's total budget deficit - including federal, state, and municipal - to 4.1% in 2010, but slower spending and higher tax revenues reduced the deficit to 0.8% in 2011. In 2012 Germany reached a budget surplus of 0.1%. A constitutional amendment approved in 2009 limits the federal government to structural deficits of no more than 0.35% of GDP per annum as of 2016 though the target was already reached in 2012. By 2014, the federal government wants to balance its budget. Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced in May 2011 that eight of the country's 17 nuclear reactors would be shut down immediately and the remaining plants would close by 2022. Germany hopes to replace nuclear power with renewable energy. Before the shutdown of the eight reactors, Germany relied on nuclear power for 23% of its electricity generating capacity and 46% of its base-load electricity production.
|
|
|
Exchange rates
|
Australian dollars (AUD) per US dollar -<br />0.97 (2012)<br />0.97 (2011)<br />1.09 (2010)<br />1.28 (2009)<br />1.21 (2008)
|
euros (EUR) per US dollar -<br />0.78 (2012 est.)<br />0.72 (2011 est.)<br />0.76 (2010 est.)<br />0.72 (2009 est.)<br />0.68 (2008 est.)
|
|
|
Exports
>
Commodities
|
phosphate
|
motor vehicles, machinery, chemicals, computer and electronic products, electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, metals, transport equipment, foodstuffs, textiles, rubber and plastic products
|
|
|
Fiscal year
|
1
|
calendar year
|
|
|
Imports
>
Commodities
|
consumer goods
|
machinery, data processing equipment, vehicles, chemicals, oil and gas, metals, electric equipment, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, agricultural products
|
|
|
Industries
|
tourism, phosphate extraction (near depletion)
|
among the world's largest and most technologically advanced producers of iron, steel, coal, cement, chemicals, machinery, vehicles, machine tools, electronics, food and beverages, shipbuilding, textiles
|
|
|
Trade
>
Exports to US
|
$100,000.00
Ranked 207th.
|
$15.95 billion
Ranked 5th.
159458 times more
than
Christmas Island
|
|
|
Trade balance with US
|
$200,000.00
Ranked 95th.
|
$-8,563,500,000.00
Ranked 220th.
|
|