On the 15th, the German government announced that its economy had grown over 6 percent in nominal terms last year, further strengthening the possibility of it overtaking Japan to become the world’s third-largest economy. More specifically, Germany’s GDP had reached 4.1 trillion euros (4.5 trillion dollars), a 6,3% increase from the previous year.
Japan’s nominal GDP for the nine-month period from January to September of last year was 436 trillion yen or roughly 3 trillion dollars. For Japan’s economy to exceed Germany in all of 2023, its GDP for the period from October to December will have to total around 19 trillion yen. This is unlikely to happen, as the country’s nominal GDP for the last quarter of 2022 was about 147 million yen.
Japan’s GDP had been on a rapid decline due to the weak yen while Germany’s economy was boosted by soaring prices. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated that Germany will overtake Japan to become the 3rd largest economy in the world. The United States and China are in first and second place, respectively.
Source: NHK
