ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the element of the Agenda 2010 labour market reforms and will link them to Germany's macroeconomic performance. It explains some problematic elements of the German performance. The German public budget is almost in balance and the level of public debt measured as a share of Gross domestic product (GDP) is also lower than in any other of the large OECD countries. As mentioned before, especially in the euro crisis from 2010 onwards, other European countries have often been told to follow the German model and pass similar reforms to Germany's. However, that Germany has been doing well is not a sufficient condition for making it a blueprint for everyone. The second important element of the German model has been nominal wage moderation. If only one country in a monetary union follows such a deflationary policy, this counter-argument against wage deflation is less important.
