Germany GDP was down 0.1% from the preceding quarter

According to the report from Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in the second quarter of 2019, the real (price-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) was down 0.1% from the preceding quarter, after adjustment for seasonal and calendar variations. In the first quarter of 2019, the German economy had grown by 0.4%.

The development of foreign trade slowed down economic growth in the second quarter of 2019. After seasonal and calendar adjustment,price-adjusted exports were down 1.3% from the preceding quarter, markedly more than imports (-0.3%).

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (price-adjusted and adjusted for seasonal and calendar variations) shows that positive contributions came from domestic demand, according to provisional calculations. Household final consumption expenditure increased by 0.1% from the first quarter of 2019 and government final consumption expenditure rose by 0.5%. Capital formation was up, too. Fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment increased by 0.6% and in other fixed assets by 1.0% on the preceding quarter. Only gross fixed capital formation in construction went down in the second quarter (-1.0%), probably also because of the mild weather at the beginning of the year, which led to high growth rates for fixed capital formation in construction in the first quarter (+2.5%).

Real GDP stagnated year on year. After calendar adjustment, GDP was up by 0.4% because the second quarter of 2019 had one working day less than the same quarter a year earlier. In the first quarter of 2019, real GDP was 0.8% (calendar-adjusted: 0.9%) higher than in the same quarter of the preceding year.