East German population down 1 mln since unification

BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) The population of the former communist East Germany has shrunk by nearly 1 million since reunification in 1990 because people have moved west in search of a better life.

A net total of 49,000 people left the five eastern states last year, data from the Federal Statistics Office showed yesterday, bringing net departures since the merger of the two Germanys to roughly 950,000.

The figures come days before the 16th anniversary of German reunification on Oct. 3 and do not include Berlin because movements between the eastern and western areas of the formerly divided city are difficult to measure.

A total of 13.3 million people, or 16 per cent of the entire German population, now live in the five former communist eastern states. At the time of unification the figure stood at nearly 20 percent.

Last year's election of Angela Merkel, the first chancellor to have grown up in the former communist area, boosted hopes in the east of a stronger federal drive to turn around the region, where wages are 23 per cent lower than in the west.

But Transport Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, who has responsibility for the so-called ''new states'' in Merkel's government, said this week that the former east remained beset by numerous structural problems.

Unemployment in the east stands at 17.2 per cent compared to 8.9 percent in the west and the flight of young, skilled workers has further dimmed the outlook for large swathes of a region that borders Poland and the Czech Republic.

Recently, signs have emerged that far-right parties are profiting from the economic troubles and hopelessness there.

The National Democrats (NPD), a party the government has likened to Hitler's early Nazis, won seats earlier this month in the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern -- an eastern state where Merkel has her local constituency.

Far-right parties are now represented in three of the five former communist states. Some fear their rise could dissuade tourists and investors from coming to the east, aggravating the area's economic woes.

Opposition politicians have criticised Merkel's ''grand coalition'' of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) for not doing enough to bolster economic prospects in the east.

''Coming from the east, the chancellor should really be the one who knows best what to do,'' Left Party parliamentarian Roland Claus said.

REUTERS MQA PM0859