Pity the poor Germans. Never mind that two Bundesliga teams are in the Champions League football final this month. Or that the Dax index of German stocks hit an all-time high this week. Or that industrial production – manufacturing output was up 1.4 per cent month on month in March – is on a roll. As a controversial recent survey from the European Central Bank shows, there is a fundamental paradox about the eurozone’s biggest economy – rich Germany, poor Germans. Go figure.
「貧窮」的德國人真值得同情。沒錯,兩支德甲(Bundesliga)球隊將在本月的歐冠聯賽(Champions League)決賽中相遇,德國Dax股指本週創下新高,德國工業產出持續強勁、3月份製造業產出環比成長1.4%,但這些都不重要。重要的是,歐洲央行(ECB)近期一份備受爭議的調查顯示,歐元區的最大經濟體存在著一個根本性的矛盾現實:德國很富足,但德國人卻不富。怎麼會是這樣?