Wirtschaft: Osten holt wirtschaftlich seit Jahren nicht mehr auf
Die wirtschaftliche Angleichung zwischen Ost und West geht kaum mehr voran. Seit fünf Jahren verharrt Ostdeutschland bei knapp unter 80 Prozent des Westniveaus.
In Berlin, it has been more than three decades since the eastern German economy has lagged behind the western German economy since reunification, and this gap has not narrowed in recent years. In 2025, the five eastern German federal states reached nearly 79% of the western German economic level, up from 78% the previous year. Since 1991, the eastern economy had been steadily catching up, starting from 51% of the western economy.
However, progress has slowed down in the past five years, oscillating between 78% and 79% since 2020, never reaching the 80% mark. The IW-Einheitsindex, which measures the economic catch-up process in Eastern Germany since 1990, takes into account per capita economic performance, productivity, capital stock, the proportion of highly skilled researchers in R&D, labor market participation, unemployment, and self-employment rates.
Experts at the IW identify significant deficits in research, where the eastern economy has only about 46% of the western level in terms of personnel employed in research and development. While the public sector, including universities and institutes, generally performs well, the lack of large enterprises in the eastern economy is a major hindrance.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
