Eastern Germany remains considerably poorer than the country's western half, an official report published on Wednesday by the federal government revealed.

According to the "annual report on the state of German unity", East-West economic convergence is far from complete, despite 28 years having passed since German reunification. While living standards in the East moved closer towards those in the West during that period, wages and gross domestic product (GDP) were still considerably lower in parts of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).

The report further lamented a relatively low concentration of corporate headquarters and large companies in the East. The ruling "grand coalition" cabinet of Chancellor Angel Merkel is scheduled to assess the findings during the course of Wednesday following an official presentation on the subject by Christian Hirte, the federal government's official commissioner for eastern German affairs.

Among others, the structural inequality between Germany's two halves is reflected in weaker research and innovation-related activities, as well as less internationalization in the operations of local companies. "Lower productivity and an absence of top-tier wages are added to this picture," the report read.

These regional issues were at least partially attributed to a "dramatic decline" in eastern Germany's birth rates witnessed during the 1990s and large-scale movements of young and well-qualified workers to western German towns and cities following reunification. As a consequence, the eastern Germany's population is now ageing faster than the national average, further contributing to differences in wealth, living standards and the availability of skilled labor.

At the same time, however, Hirte also pointed to positive developments in the East which were identified in his report. The unemployment rate differential between East and West has fallen from more than 10 percentage points in the 2000s to 2.3 percentage points in 2017. Additionally, the East scores more favorably than the West in terms of workers' ability to combine raising a family and having a career, with women accounting for nearly half of the overall labor force.

In light of such findings, Hirte complained to the Funke media group on Wednesday that many citizens still had a biased perspective on East Germany, only regarding it as a problem. "This is disappointing, because it does not accurately reflect the everyday life and reality of people (living there)," the commissioner said.