Former East to lag behind West for years to come: study

Former East to lag behind West for years to come: study - The Local
Twenty-six years after reunification, eastern Germany remains economically anaemic with little prospect of catching up with the rest of the country by 2030, a study published on Wednesday said.

Of the eastern states, only "Saxony and Brandenburg will reach the level of overall average German growth" between 2015 and 2030, wrote Joachim Ragnitz of the Ifo economic think-tank.

The remaining federal states formed from the former territory of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) - Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia, and Saxony-Anhalt - will by contrast reckon with "in parts  extremely low growth rates".

Eastern Germany's GDP grew by 1.2 percent per year between 2010 and 2015, underperforming the 1.6 percent achieved by western Germany plus Berlin, Ifo calculated..."