The German economy continued its moderate growth at the end of 2016

The German economy continued its moderate growth at the end of 2016. In the fourth quarter of 2016, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.4% on the previous quarter after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. 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). The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that this results in a 1.9% increase (calendar-adjusted: +1.8%) for the whole year of 2016. The provisional annual GDP result released in January has been confirmed.

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (upon adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations) shows that positive contributions came from domestic demand. General government final consumption expenditure was markedly up, while household final consumption expenditure rose slightly again. A largely positive development was also observed for capital formation. Especially fixed capital formation in construction was markedly up on the third quarter of 2016. According to provisional calculations, the development of foreign trade, however, had a downward effect on growth because the price-adjusted quarter-on-quarter increase in imports was markedly larger than that of exports.