It’s hard to believe now that Germany, Europe’s biggest and most successful economy, was once known as the “sick man of Europe” in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Germany’s economy has grown significantly under Angela Merkel, the Conservative leader and head of government over the last 16 years. In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, a quarter (24.7%) of the European Union’s entire gross domestic product was generated by Germany, according to Eurostat.

CNBC created five charts that show different aspects of Germany’s society and economy during Merkel’s time. According to political experts, they show that her legacy was not just one of success but also one filled with missed opportunities and mistakes.

It’s important to remember that Germany had just experienced its second recession two years prior to Merkel’s 2005 election. In the year she took office, Germany’s GDP stood at 2.3 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), Germany’s federal statistics office data shows. It was more than 3.3 trillion euro in 2020.

Germany’s unemployment rate is among the lowest in Europe (although it doesn’t rank as the highest, this honor belongs to its neighbour, the Netherlands). Nonetheless, Germany’s jobless rate is respectably low; in July 2021, the unemployment rate stood at 3.6% while for under-25s, the rate was higher, at 7.5%, Eurostat data shows.

Goldman Sachs analysts analyzed Merkel’s legacy. They noted that Merkel was a “great success in lowering the unemployment rate”, but “much” of this decline came from Merkel’s predecessor (Gerhard Schroeder), and was followed by a decade in stagnant real wage growth.

The analysts noted that Merkel’s governments had nonetheless then “maintained sound public finances and adopted the constitutional debt brake, but responded forcefully during times of crisis, successfully shielding the labour market with the “Kurzarbeit” programme in 2008 and 2020.”

Kurzarbeit is Germany’s scheme for short-term employment that allows employers to reduce the hours of their workers instead of cutting them during crisis situations like the Covid pandemic.

In Germany, the adjusted gross disposable income of households per capita was 30,142 euros in 2019, whereas it was 25,155 euros in the U.K. and 26,158 euros in France, according to Eurostat data.

The growing income gap between the wealthy and the poor is a key issue in discussions about household income in Germany. There is a significant difference between the west and east of Germany, which is a result of Germany’s post-unification years in 1990.

In 2020, the OECD noted that while differences between German regions, in terms of GDP per capita, had decreased over the last 18 years, “regional disparities among remain above the median of OECD countries, with Hamburg having more than twice the GDP per capita than Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (a neighboring state).”

As Euromonitor International noted in a September report, “despite the income growth and initiatives to promote income equality, regional disparities persist between eastern and western parts of Germany.”

One of the main criticisms leveled at Merkel’s government is that it has neglected infrastructure spending and investment because of its apparent unwillingness to borrow money and upset its strict adherence to a balanced budget, with the now infamous “schwarze Null,” or “black zero” budget rule seen as a symbol of Germany’s obsession with penny-pinching.

This lack of spending has led to the destruction of Germany’s infrastructure. The government was widely criticised for cutting back borrowing and spending when it could borrow cheaply in a low-interest environment. Other critics have pointed out that Germany’s low spending has led to imbalances within the euro area.

Stefan Koopman from Rabobank’s senior market economist stated that “the failure of Germany’s government, among others, to engage in debt financing spending after the crisis of 2008/2011 has contributed significantly to the chronic shortage of private demand, tilted saving and investment balance and distortive global, intra-euro area trade imbalances.”

The graph below shows patchy levels of gross capital formation (formerly known as gross domestic investment) in Germany, the U.K. and France since 2005.

Capital formation is the addition to fixed assets such as land and plant improvements, as well as machinery and equipment purchases. It also includes the construction of roads and railways and other infrastructures like schools, offices, and hospitals.

Experts say Germany’s next government should invest in this infrastructure.

Experts agree that Germany can’t delay spending on infrastructure. As coalition talks are underway to create a new government in Germany, much of the attention will be on each side pushing for fiscal ease.