The year 1965

With the exception of some country-specific variations, the trend for further growth in economic capacity continued in the industrialised nations. The economy in the USA picked up and, in the second half of the year in particular, France and Italy staged an economic recovery, although in Britain the overall economic balance was adversely affected by economic stagnation and price rises.

Without achieving the strong rates of growth from the previous year, stable growth still persisted in the Federal Republic. At 5.3 percent, the increase in gross national product in real terms was clearly above the average of 3.7 percent for the EEC. Conversely, the increase in industrial production of 6.4 percent did not quite correspond to the average value throughout the EEC (+6.7 percent); however, it did slightly outperform industrial growth in the USA (+6.1 percent). In this year in which Adolf Messer GmbH merged with parts of Knapsack-Griesheim AG to form Messer Griesheim GmbH, the major German groups which had been created after the demerger of IG-Farben were once again amongst the leaders in the group of the world's largest chemicals companies. Leverkusen-based Bayer AG (sales 1965: DM 5.39 billion), Farbwerke Hoechst (DM 5.24 billion) and BASF (DM 4.05 billion) combined accounted for two fifths of all sales in the sector, with this figure rising by some 8.8 percent. In exports - where the main customers remained the EEC countries - industrial chemicals continued to dominate. In contrast with the previous year, mechanical engineering as the largest branch of industry was again forging ahead, increasing its production by around 10 percent.