The German economy continued its moderate growth at the end of 2016. GDP increased 0.4% – upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustment – in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter.
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The economic situation in Germany in 2016 thus was characterised by solid and steady growth (+0.7% in the first quarter, +0.5% in the second quarter and +0.1% in the third quarter).
For the whole year of 2016, this was an increase of 1.9% (calendar-adjusted: +1.8%). The provisional annual GDP result released in January has thus been confirmed.
The quarter-on-quarter comparison (upon adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations) shows that positive contributions came mainly from domestic demand.
The final consumption expenditure of general government rose by 0.8% and household final consumption expenditure increased by 0.3% on the third quarter of 2016.
A largely positive development was also observed for capital formation. Especially gross fixed capital formation in construction was up (+1.6%) on the previous quarter.
Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment fell slightly (–0.1%) on the previous quarter.
On the whole, domestic uses rose by 0.9% (upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustment) compared with the third quarter of 2016.
According to provisional calculations, the development of foreign trade, however, had a downward effect on growth because the price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted increase in imports on the previous quarter (+3.1%) was markedly larger than the increase in exports (+1.8%).
Consequently, the balance of exports and imports of goods and services as a whole, in arithmetical terms, had a negative effect on GDP growth (–0.4 percentage points).
The following information refers to the year-on-year comparison
Measured by unadjusted figures, economic growth on a year earlier slowed since summer.
The price-adjusted GDP rose by 1.2% in the fourth quarter of 2016, following increases of 1.5% in the third quarter of 2016 and 3.2% in the second quarter of 2016.
However, in the last quarter of 2016 there was one working day less than a year earlier.
Consequently, the calendar-adjusted increase (+1.7%) was similar to that in the third (+1.7%) and second quarter (+1.8%). ■