Financial markets in Germany - statistics & facts
While Germany is among the four largest economy by GDP in the world, several of its financial markets are actually smaller than those of its European neighbors or than those of less developed economies worldwide. For example, Germany has the ninth-highest share of global equity markets, while India, Japan, and the UK are higher in the ranking. In part this is for cultural reasons: German retail investors are often more hesitant to invest in stocks than in countries like the United Kingdom or United States; and have less need to do so owing to Germany’s more generous government pensions. But another reason for this may lie in the nature of the Germany economy itself – the contribution of manufacturing to total GDP is proportionally larger in Germany than other countries, lessening the centrality of the stock market for generating revenue (compared to countries with a high portion of financial services companies like the UK).
