Germany 4Q GDP remained nearly at the previous quarter's level

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said, in the fourth quarter of 2018, the gross domestic product (GDP) remained nearly at the previous quarter's level after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. Economists had expected a 0.1% increase. For the whole year of 2018, this was an increase of 1.4% (calendar adjusted: 1.5%). Hence growth was slightly smaller than reported in January.

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted) reveals that positive contributions mainly came from domestic demand. Gross fixed capital formation, especially in construction but also in machinery and equipment, increased markedly compared with the third quarter of 2018. While household final consumption expenditure increased slightly, general government final consumption expenditure was markedly up at the end of the year. However, development of foreign trade did not make a positive contribution to growth in the fourth quarter. According to provisional calculations, exports and imports of goods and services increased nearly at the same rate in the quarter-on-quarter comparison.

Measured by unadjusted figures, economic growth slowed down year on year. The price adjusted GDP rose by 0.9% (calendar adjusted: 0.6%) in the fourth quarter of 2018, following increases of 1.1% (also calendar adjusted) in the third quarter of 2018, 2.3% (calendar adjusted: 2.0%) in the second quarter of 2018 and 1.4% in the first quarter of 2018 (calendar adjusted: 2.1%).