}>the equity capital assistance program financed by the Federal Government and the European Recovery Program (ERP), which together have provided approximately 240,000 promotion loans since 1990; >the joint federal/state program “Improving the Regional Economic Structures” financed by the Federation, the states and the European Union; and >the program of the Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (Development Loan Corporation) for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Economic development as a whole in eastern Germany has been on the upswing for years. As a result of the tremendous efforts on the part of the people in the east and the industriousness of the many individuals who have started businesses of their own, coupled with the aforementioned financial resources and immense organizational undertakings, the process of economic adjustment has made great strides. Incomes and pensions are gradually being adjusted in line with those in western Germany.

By the beginning of 1996 the basic pension in the east had risen to approximately 82.2 percent of the level in the west. Many branches of the eastern economy are today increasingly characterized by self-sustained growth. In others, however, there are still problems which are due among other things to the lower level of productivity per employee in the new states. Nevertheless, in 1996 productivity in the east reached about 57 percent of the level in the west; in 1991 it was only 31 percent.