German GDP unexpectedly rose in the third quarter

According to the report from Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in the third quarter of 2019, the price-adjusted gross domestic product in Germany increased by 0.1% on the second quarter of 2019, after adjustment for seasonal and calendar variations. Economists had expected a 0.1% decrease. According to the most recent calculations, taking into account newly available statistical information, the GDP was down 0.2% in the second quarter of 2019, which is 0.1 percentage points more than first published. Destatis also reports that the increase in the first quarter of 2019 (0.5%) was by 0.1 percentage points larger than published earlier.

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted) shows that positive contributions in the third quarter of 2019 mainly came from consumption, according to provisional calculations. Compared with the second quarter of 2019, household final consumption expenditure increased, and so did government final consumption expenditure. Exports rose, while imports remained roughly at the level of the previous quarter. Also, gross fixed capital formation in construction was up on the previous quarter. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment, however, was lower than in the previous quarter.