ESSEN, Germany — For most of this century, Germany racked up one economic success after another, dominating global markets for high-end products like luxury cars and industrial machinery, selling so much to the rest of the world that half the economy ran on exports.
The sudden underperformance by Europe's largest economy has set off a wave of criticism, handwringing and debate about the way forward.and government inaction on other chronic problems threaten to send new factories and high-paying jobs elsewhere, said Christian Kullmann, CEO of major German chemical company Evonik Industries AG.
These days, the former mining region, where coal dust once blackened hanging laundry, is a symbol of theneeded to power factories “painfully damaged the business model of the German economy,” Kullmann told The Associated Press. “We’re in a situation where we’re being strongly affected — damaged — by external factors.