Press release No.185 / 2009-05-15

Gross domestic product falling sharply in 1st quarter of 2009

WIESBADEN – As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the downward trend of the German economy accelerated in the first quarter of 2009. The gross domestic product (GDP) was by 3.8% smaller in the first quarter of 2009 on the last quarter of 2008 upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. The GDP thus decreased on the previous quarter for the fourth time in a row, recording in the first quarter of 2009 the largest decrease since official quarterly results were calculated and published for the first time in 1970.

Compared with the first quarter of 2008, the price-adjusted GDP was down 6.7% in the first three months of 2009. When calendar-adjusted, the GDP decreased by 6.9% because in the reference quarter 0.6 working days more were available than in the same period of the previous year.

A negative influence on the GDP was exerted both by the balance of exports and imports – the decrease of price-adjusted exports was markedly larger than that of imports – and by capital formation, which was considerably lower than in the previous quarter. A slight increase was recorded only for household and government final consumption expenditure.

The economic performance in the first quarter of 2009 was achieved by 39.9 million persons in employment, which was an increase by 48,000 persons or 0.1% on a year earlier.
In the context of the first calculation of data for the first quarter of 2009, the results published so far for the year and the four quarters of 2008 were revised, too. This led to a downward revision of the rate of GDP change for the fourth quarter of 2008 by 0.1 percentage points.

The Federal Statistical Office will release detailed results on 26 May 2009.
A long time series with quarterly results on the gross domestic product since the first quarter of 1970 is available at the Internet.

Gross domestic product
Price-adjusted, chain-linked
		Unadjusted figures		Figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA
		Unadjusted figures		Seasonally and calendar adjusted		Calendar adjusted		Calendar effect
		2000 = 100	% ¹⁾	2000 = 100	% ²⁾	2000 = 100	% ¹⁾	% ¹⁾
¹⁾ Change on the same quarter of the preceding year in %. ²⁾ Change on the previous quarter in %.
2007	1st quarter	106.56	3.4	108.15	0.4	106.21	3.7	–0.3
	2nd quarter	107.84	2.5	108.53	0.4	108.15	2.5	–0.0
	3rd quarter	110.06	2.4	109.18	0.6	110.49	2.4	–0.0
	4th quarter	110.31	1.6	109.55	0.3	110.56	1.7	–0.1
2008	1st quarter	108.76	2.1	111.22	1.5	109.29	2.9	–0.8
	2nd quarter	111.47	3.4	110.66	–0.5	110.28	2.0	1.4
	3rd quarter	111.58	1.4	110.06	–0.5	111.39	0.8	0.6
	4th quarter	108.46	–1.7	107.61	–2.2	108.60	–1.8	0.1
2009	1st quarter	101.47	–6.7	103.52	–3.8	101.74	–6.9	0.2

Gross domestic product at current prices
		Unadjusted figures		Seasonally and calendar adjusted figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA
		EUR billion	Change in % ¹⁾	EUR billion	Change in % ²⁾
¹⁾ Change on the same quarter of the preceding year in %. ²⁾ Change on the previous quarter in %.
2007	1st quarter	588.20	5.2	599.86	1.5
	2nd quarter	596.80	4.4	604.30	0.7
	3rd quarter	615.10	4.4	609.66	0.9
	4th quarter	622.80	3.5	612.67	0.5
2008	1st quarter	608.00	3.4	624.66	2.0
	2nd quarter	625.60	4.8	624.69	0.0
	3rd quarter	632.10	2.8	622.96	–0.3
	4th quarter	625.70	0.5	615.11	–1.3
2009	1st quarter	577.10	–5.1	591.46	–3.8

>>> brief methodological description

For further information please contact:
National accounts info team,
tel: (+49-611) 75-2626,

E-mail: gdp-info@destatis.de

For more details please refer to the German version.

Contact:
tel: (+49-611)75-3444
fax: (+49-611)75-3976
presse@destatis.de
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