Germany: Has Gerhard Schröders’s legacy been squandered?

In the early 2000s in Germany, Gerhard Schröder’s reforms after a few years led to a marked improvement in German companies’ cost competitiveness and profitability, leading to a n upswing in exports, investment, employment and growth. Was Gerhard Schröder ’s legacy subsequently squandered? When we look at trends since the late 2000s in Germany's cost competitiveness, profitability, productivity, investment, employment rate and exports, we see tha t Germany has lost all its advantages in terms of: Cost competitiveness; Profitability; Productivity (Germany's productivity is lower than that of the rest of the euro zone); Investment drive. Germany still has a high employment rate and high export market shares. We can therefore consider that a large part of the legacy of Schröder’s reforms has been lost.