Daimler Annual Report 2011 - Alle jaarverslagen

3 | Management Report | Business and General Conditions
Economy and markets
The world economy. With growth of approximately 3%, the
world economy expanded in 2011 at roughly the rate of its
long-term average. 3.04 In the prior year, economic stimulus
programs had boosted growth to 4.3% following the deep
recession of 2009. But 2011 was a very eventful year for the
world economy – with unusually high volatilities in the finan -
cial markets, with a dramatic natural disaster in Japan and with
considerable geopolitical turmoil in North Africa and the
Middle East. However, the economic issue that increasingly
dominated as the year progressed was the sovereign-debt
crisis, in particular in the euro zone. And the debate about
limiting public debt had an impact on economic developments
in the United States as well. As a result of the sovereign-debt
crisis, related problems in the banking sector emerged.
When one also takes into consideration the burdens of high rawmaterial
prices and sharp fluctuations in exchange rates,
it is remarkable that the world economy nonetheless grew by
almost 3%.
As in the previous years, the emerging economies were responsible
for most of this expansion: Their real gross domestic
product increased by nearly 6%, accounting for about 70% of
global growth. Asia was once again the main growth driver,
and led by China and India, posted GDP growth of almost 7%.
But an even better development in this region was prevented
by sharp rises in inflation rates. It was particularly important for
the world economy that the Chinese eco nomy expanded by
a good 9%, despite a growth slowdown over the course of the
year. Economic developments in the other emerging markets
were also generally positive. Eastern Europe achieved GDP
growth of 4%, as in 2010; Latin America was not able to
match the rather overheated prior-year growth, but still expanded
strongly.
Developments in the industrialized countries were disappointing,
however: In Japan, the multiple disaster in March inevitably
led to an economic slump. But notwithstanding the human tragedies,
Japan was able to take reconstruction measures faster
than had initially been feared. The massive appreciation of the
yen prevented a more favorable economic development, however.
The US economy made only sluggish progress, in particular
when compared with earlier phases of recovery after
a recession. The country’s unemployment rate remained at an
unusually high level, which depressed private consumption.
Another negative factor was that the real-estate sector suffered
badly from the crisis and was unable to supply any stimulus.
Starting with the discussion about increasing the public debt
ceiling and with the threat of temporary insolvency, indicators
of consumer and business sentiment worsened significantly
towards the middle of the year. The US economy stabilized
encouragingly in the second half of the year, but growth for the
year of less than 2% was anything but satisfactory and significantly
lower than the long-term average.
The situation was even more unfavorable in Western Europe,
which was impacted by the escalation of the debt crisis in the
euro zone. The number of countries receiving assistance from
the rescue package increased, and the crisis is meanwhile no
longer limited to the smaller peripheral countries. The expansion
of the rescue schemes and debt restructuring for Greece
were insufficient to prevent concern about possible contagion
effects, and the financial markets reacted with a high degree
of nervousness and consequential volatilities. On aggregate,
the economies of the euro zone achieved GDP growth of approximately
1.5% in 2011. Although the German economy once
again expanded at an above-average rate of 3%, it was unable
to escape from the unfavorable environment and its growth
slowed down as the year progressed. In the fourth quarter of
the year, economic growth in the euro zone was in fact
probably slightly negative.
In this difficult environment, exchange rates were once again
very volatile. Against the euro, the US dollar fluctuated over
the year in a range from $1.29 to nearly $1.50. But at the end
of the year, it was close to the level of early 2011 at $1.29
to the euro. The fluctuation of the Japanese yen to the euro was
similarly high, within a corridor of ¥100 to ¥123. But in this
case, by the end of 2011, the euro had lost nearly 8% against
the yen compared with the beginning of the year. Against
the British pound, the euro fell by 3% over the year, also after
volatile movements.
3.04
Economic growth
Gross domestic product, growth rates in % 2010
2011
10
8
6
4
2
0
-2
Total NAFTA Western
Europe
Japan
Asia excl.
Japan
Other
markets
Source: IHS Global Insight
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