Ms. Merkel, Germany’s leader for more than a decade, emerged as a major global figure in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. At home, she oversaw a plunge in joblessness and an economic expansion that contrasted with misery in much of the rest of Europe.

Her tenure is far from over. This week Germany’s Social Democrats were reconsidering their decision not to continue a coalition government with Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats. Five years of compromising with Ms. Merkel has hurt the Social Democrats among their blue-collar base. But the alliance of the two mainstream parties provided the kind of stability that business craves.

The economic outlook in Germany and Europe has not been this good in at least a decade, making the turmoil in Berlin seem like little more than background noise. The mood among European consumers is better than it has been since 2001. The eurozone economy has been expanding since 2013. In the most recent quarter, every country in the European Union grew except Denmark, where the economy shrank 0.3 percent compared with the previous quarter.

On the list of things keeping corporate executives up at night, business leaders and analysts say, the Berlin stalemate probably ranks well below other risks. More troubling for instance are North Korean nuclear arms, United States protectionism, a drift toward authoritarianism in Eastern Europe and Turkey, and Britain’s fraught attempt to work out a divorce from the European Union.

But during her 12 years in office, Ms. Merkel has largely been coasting on reforms to the labor market and social welfare system undertaken by her Social Democratic predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, at great cost to his political career.

To defend its long-term competitiveness, analysts say, Germany needs to be investing in infrastructure and its work force. With an unemployment rate of only 3.6 percent, the country will face labor shortages unless it can integrate immigrants into the work force. That will require more investment in education and training.

Corporations have a strong interest in political decisions that will be made in Brussels in coming years, such as common defense policy and the choice of a successor to Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, whose stimulus measures helped bolster the eurozone’s economy.