Eastern Germany still lags 25 years after Berlin Wall's fall

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the economy of Germany's ex-communist East is still struggling to catch up to the former West's, the government said Wednesday. Despite progress, Germany's five states that were behind the Iron Curtain until 1989 have a smaller economy with gross domestic product per inhabitant a third lower than in the west of Europe's top economy, it said in a report.
Iris Gleicke, the government's representative for the "new" states, said Germany's 1990 reunification had presented a historic one-off challenge in rebuilding the former East and now showed an overall "pleasing" picture. Presenting the annual reunification assessment on as Germany gears up to mark the 25th anniversary of the Wall's fall in November, she said convergence of living conditions between East and West had "largely succeeded".