Mercedes 2013 Annual Report Download - page 77

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C | Combined Management Report | Corporate Profile | Economic Conditions and Business Development
The world economy
At a rate of 2.5%, expansion of the world economy in 2013
was once again lower than its long-term trend of a little over 3%.

C.05 After a difficult start to the year, the development of
the global economy actually stabilized as the year progressed,
so that a slight revival was apparent, especially in the second
half of the year. As in previous years, the economy was stimulated
by the ongoing expansive monetary policies of all the major
central banks. One of the crucial factors for the stabilization was
that uncertainty in connection with the European sovereign-
debt crisis subsided perceptibly as a result of the measures
taken by the European Central Bank. Although the price of
crude oil fluctuated during the year, on average it was slightly
lower than in 2012.
The economies of the industrial countries achieved disappoint-
ing aggregate growth of approximately 1%, which was once again
considerably below their potential. Economic growth in the
United States of 1.9% was significantly weaker than in the pre-
vious year, primarily due to restrictive fiscal measures and
reduced investment. In the autumn, tough negotiations concern-
ing the required lifting of the debt ceiling were a substantial
negative factor for the global economy. The Japanese economy
started the year 2013 with relatively good momentum, primarily
driven by the expansive measures taken by the country’s
central bank and government. The resulting considerable depre-
ciation of the yen provided additional stimulus.
In the European Monetary Union, fiscal policy in 2013 continued
to be dominated by consolidation measures, some of which
were quite significant; their overall impact on growth was nega-
tive, similar to in the previous year. Although falling domestic
demand led to another decrease in GDP of approximately 0.5%
for the full year, slight growth was actually achieved from
one quarter to the next. The situation in the southern recession
countries such as Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy remained
difficult. Economic development stagnated also in France, while
the German economy at least achieved modest growth of 0.4%.
After posting consistently strong growth in recent years,
the emerging markets remained significantly below original
expectations in 2013 with overall growth of just under 4.5%.
Above all for the major economies of India, Brazil and Russia,
forecasts were revised downwards continually and by signi-
ficant margins during the year. But it was particularly important
for the world economy that the growth slowdown in China
did not continue. In fact, the situation of the Chinese economy
stabilized during the second half of the year, and solid GDP
growth of 7.7% was achieved in the year 2013.
In this global economic environment, exchange rates were
volatile, in some cases very much so. Against the euro, the US
dollar fluctuated over the year in a range from €1.27 to €1.39.
At the end of 2013, the euro was nearly 5% stronger than at the
beginning of the year at $1.38. The fluctuation of the Japanese
yen to the euro was very pronounced within a corridor of ¥113
to ¥145. By the end of 2013, the euro had gained nearly 27%
against the yen compared with the beginning of the year. The
euro closed the year with a gain of approximately 2% against
the British pound, with rather less volatility.
Economic Conditions
and Business Development.
Gross domestic product, growth rates in %2012
2013
Economic growth
6
C.05
Total Western
Europe NAFTA Asia South
AmericaEaster
n
Europe
Source: IHS Global Insight
-1
0
1
2
4
3
5