Press release No. 316 of 24 August 2018

Gross domestic product, 2^nd quarter of 2018
• +0.5% on the previous quarter (price, seasonally and calendar-adjusted)
• +2.3% on the same quarter a year earlier (price-adjusted)
• +2.0% on the same quarter a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)

WIESBADEN – The German economy continues to grow. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) already reported in its first release of 14 August 2018, the gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.5% - upon price, seasonal and calendar adjustment - in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the previous quarter. In the first quarter of 2018, GDP growth had been slightly smaller (0.4%).

Gross domestic product, price-adjusted, chain-linked
(figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using Census X-12-ARIMA)
Changes on a quarter earlier (in percent):

2016				2017				2018
1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr
+0.9	+0.4	+0.2	+0.4	+1.1	+0.5	+0.6	+0.5	+0.4	+0.5

Quarter-on-quarter contributions to growth came from domestic demand
The quarter-on-quarter comparison following price, seasonal and calendar adjustment shows that, on the use side of the gross domestic product, positive contributions mainly came from domestic demand. The final consumption expenditure of households rose by 0.3% and government final consumption expenditure increased by 0.6% on the previous quarter. Capital formation was higher, too. Fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment increased by 0.3% and in construction by 0.6% on the first quarter of 2018. Overall, domestic uses increased markedly by 0.9% compared with the first three months of the year.

According to provisional calculations, exports of goods and services were up 0.7% compared with the first quarter of 2018. There was a notably larger increase in imports (+1.7%) over the same period.

Year-on-year comparison shows strong economic growth
Compared with a year earlier, the price adjusted GDP rose 2.3% in the second quarter of 2018 (first quarter of 2018: +1.4%).

Gross domestic product, price-adjusted, chain-linked (unadjusted figures)
Changes on a year earlier (in percent):

2016				2017				2018
1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr
+2.0	+3.7	+1.9	+1.4	+3.4	+0.9	+2.2	+2.2	+1.4	+2.3

When calendar-adjusted, GDP growth in the second quarter of 2018 was 2.0% (following 2.1% in the first quarter of 2018). There was one working day more than in the second quarter of 2017.

Number of persons in employment continued to rise in the 2^nd quarter of 2018
The economic performance in the second quarter of 2018 was achieved by 44.8 million persons in employment in the domestic territory, which was an increase of 599,000 or 1.4% on a year earlier (see press release 301/18 of 14 August 2018).

According to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency, the average number of hours worked per person in employment also increased by 1.4%. The labour volume of the overall economy, which is the total number of hours worked by all persons in employment, rose by 2.7%.

Overall labour productivity (price-adjusted gross domestic product per hour worked by persons in employment) was down 0.4% on the previous year, according to provisional calculations. Measured per person in employment, labour productivity rose by 1.0%.

Growth contributions mainly came from domestic demand also in a year-on-year comparison
The year-on-year comparison shows that positive contributions to growth came from domestic demand in the second quarter of 2018. After price-adjustment, the final consumption expenditure of both households and government rose by 1.0%. Compared with the second quarter of 2017, gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment grew by 5.4% (price- adjusted). Gross fixed capital formation in construction was up by 3.2%. A year-on-year increase was recorded especially in housing construction. On the whole, domestic uses rose by 2.2%.

In the second quarter of 2018, both exports of goods and services (+4.2%) and imports (+4.1%) were up on the same period of the previous year, according to provisional calculations.

Gross value added higher in almost all economic sectors
On the production side of the gross domestic product, the total price-adjusted gross value added was up on the second quarter of 2017 in all economic sectors with the exception of agriculture and forestry. The highest growth rates were recorded for information and communication (+4.8%) and in manufacturing (+3.8%). Overall, gross value added was up by 2.4% in all economic sectors.

Strong increase in compensation of employees
At current prices, both the gross domestic product and the gross national income were up 4.2% in the second quarter of 2018 compared with the second quarter of 2017. Net national income at factor cost rose a total 4.1% according to first provisional calculations, with the compensation of employees (+4.7%) growing markedly faster than property and entrepreneurial income (+3.0%). Both gross and net wages and salaries of employees rose 4.9% on the second quarter of 2017. On average, wages and salaries per employee did not rise that much (3.2% in both gross and net terms) because the number of employees was up as well (+1.7%) compared with the same quarter a year earlier. The disposable income of households increased by 3.2%, the rise being higher than that of household final consumption expenditure at current prices (+2.6%).

Revision of previous results
As every year in August, the Federal Statistical Office also reviewed and revised, where necessary, the results published previously for the last four years (from 2014) and for the first quarter of 2018 in the context of the first calculation of data for the second quarter of 2018. The first provisional results are revised several times to incorporate new statistical information. In this way, data users are always supplied with the best possible results for analyses and projections. As reported in the first release of 14 August 2018, the current recalculation resulted in price adjusted change rates of the annual and quarterly GDP that differ from the data published previously by up to 0.5 percentage points. Markedly larger corrections were required for individual GDP components. As is usual for seasonally and calendar-adjusted series, modified results may also appear in the whole time series from 1991 onwards.

National accounts data may be accessed via the Destatis website. More detailed results are published in Fachserie 18 "National Accounts", Series 1.2 “Quarterly results“ and Series 1.3 “Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using Census X-12-ARIMA and BV 4.1”. The above and other publications can be downloaded from National accounts. A detailed quality report on national accounts is available at the internet.  

Gross domestic product

		Unadjusted figures				Figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA price-adjusted, chain-linked
		At current prices		Price-adjusted, chain-linked		Seasonally and calendar-adjusted		calendar-adjusted
		EUR billion	% 1	2010 = 100	% 1	2010 = 100	% 2	% 1 3
1 Change on the previous year or the same quarter of the preceding year in %. 2 Change on the previous year or quarter in %. 3 As for years, the calendar-adjusted values equal the seasonally and calendar-adjusted values (except for differences due to rounding). qtr = quarter
2014		2,938.59	4.0	106.96	2.2	107.13	2.2	2.2
2015		3,048.86	3.8	108.82	1.7	108.72	1.5	1.5
2016		3,159.75	3.6	111.26	2.2	111.06	2.2	2.2
2017		3,277.34	3.7	113.66	2.2	113.79	2.5	2.5
2014	1st qtr	719.60	5.0	106.15	3.2	106.73	1.0	3.0
	2nd qtr	722.41	3.4	105.62	1.5	106.67	-0.1	1.9
	3rd qtr	747.80	3.4	108.99	1.7	107.04	0.3	1.6
	4th qtr	748.78	4.1	107.10	2.4	108.07	1.0	2.2
2015	1st qtr	742.83	3.2	107.51	1.3	107.92	-0.1	1.2
	2nd qtr	750.56	3.9	107.51	1.8	108.56	0.6	1.8
	3rd qtr	775.48	3.7	110.91	1.8	108.89	0.3	1.7
	4th qtr	779.99	4.2	109.34	2.1	109.49	0.6	1.3
2016	1st qtr	770.40	3.7	109.68	2.0	110.49	0.9	2.4
	2nd qtr	789.22	5.2	111.45	3.7	110.98	0.4	2.3
	3rd qtr	799.88	3.1	113.05	1.9	111.17	0.2	2.1
	4th qtr	800.25	2.6	110.86	1.4	111.60	0.4	1.9
2017	1st qtr	803.37	4.3	113.40	3.4	112.84	1.1	2.1
	2nd qtr	808.72	2.5	112.45	0.9	113.46	0.5	2.2
	3rd qtr	833.24	4.2	115.50	2.2	114.12	0.6	2.6
	4th qtr	832.01	4.0	113.27	2.2	114.73	0.5	2.8
2018	1st qtr	828.98	3.2	114.95	1.4	115.15	0.4	2.1
	2nd qtr	842.86	4.2	115.09	2.3	115.67	0.5	2.0

 

Use of the gross domestic product
Unadjusted figures 

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
					1st qtr		2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Consumption expenditure	2,158.105	2,218.284	2,291.063	2,371.051	587.033		606.069
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	1,594.143	1,630.887	1,675.569	1,732.176	427.673		445.159
Government final consumption expenditure	563.962	587.397	615.494	638.875	159.360		160.910
Gross capital formation	577.006	586.438	621.219	658.497	178.171		171.399
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	587.549	605.510	634.029	665.722	159.732		179.377
GFCF in machinery and equipment	191.698	201.217	206.502	215.214	51.748		56.169
GFCF in construction	289.663	290.742	307.114	326.630	77.273		91.948
GFCF in other products	106.188	113.551	120.413	123.878	30.711		31.260
Domestic uses	2,735.111	2,804.722	2,912.282	3,029.548	765.204		777.468
Exports	1,341.314	1,428.688	1,450.232	1,541.898	389.907		402.068
Imports	1,137.835	1,184.550	1,202.764	1,294.106	326.131		336.676
Gross domestic product (GDP)	2,938.590	3,048.860	3,159.750	3,277.340	828.980		842.860
Price-adjusted, chain-linked
Change on the previous year in %
Consumption expenditure	1.2	2.0	2.6	1.7	1.4		1.0
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	1.0	1.7	2.1	1.8	1.6		1.0
Government final consumption expenditure	1.6	2.9	4.0	1.6	0.8		1.0
Gross capital formation	3.1	0.1	4.6	3.2	1.9		6.7
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	3.9	1.6	3.5	2.9	2.2		3.4
GFCF in machinery and equipment	5.9	4.1	2.2	3.7	4.7		5.4
GFCF in construction	2.2	-1.4	3.8	2.9	1.4		3.2
GFCF in other products	5.1	5.4	5.2	1.3	0.4		0.4
Domestic uses	1.6	1.6	3.0	2.0	1.5		2.2
Exports	4.7	5.3	2.3	4.6	2.2		4.2
Imports	3.7	5.6	4.1	4.8	2.7		4.1
Gross domestic product (GDP)	2.2	1.7	2.2	2.2	1.4		2.3
memorandum item:
GDP per person in employment	1.4	0.8	0.9	0.7	-0.1	1.0
GDP per hour worked by persons in employment	1.0	0.6	1.4	0.9	1.0	-0.4
Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP in percentage points
Consumption expenditure	0.9	1.5	1.9	1.2	1.0	0.7
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	0.6	0.9	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.5
Government final consumption expenditure	0.3	0.6	0.8	0.3	0.2	0.2
Gross capital formation	0.6	0.0	0.9	0.6	0.4	1.3
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	0.8	0.3	0.7	0.6	0.4	0.7
GFCF in machinery and equipment	0.4	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.4
GFCF in construction	0.2	-0.1	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.3
GFCF in other products	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.0
Changes in inventories and so on	-0.2	-0.3	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.6
Domestic uses	1.5	1.5	2.7	1.9	1.4	2.0
Balance of exports and imports (net exports)	0.7	0.2	-0.5	0.3	-0.1	0.4

 

 Use of the gross domestic product
Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA

	2017				2018
	1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr
1 Only seasonally adjusted. qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Consumption expenditure	586.298	591.501	594.925	599.915	604.157	608.946
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	428.831	432.672	434.601	437.660	441.594	444.482
Government final consumption expenditure	157.467	158.829	160.324	162.255	162.563	164.464
Gross capital formation	160.416	165.025	166.543	167.842	170.464	178.630
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	163.253	166.342	167.946	169.868	173.386	175.436
GFCF in machinery and equipment	52.352	53.832	54.572	55.102	56.169	56.478
GFCF in construction	80.300	81.653	82.298	83.422	85.804	87.301
GFCF in other products	30.601	30.857	31.076	31.344	31.413	31.657
Domestic uses	746.714	756.526	761.468	767.757	774.621	787.576
Exports	378.834	383.855	387.285	395.168	395.100	399.056
Imports	319.233	323.595	323.042	330.405	331.800	339.004
Gross domestic product (GDP)	806.315	816.786	825.711	832.520	837.921	847.628
Price-adjusted, chain-linked
Change on the previous quarter in %
Consumption expenditure	0.6	0.7	0.1	0.3	0.3	0.4
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	0.7	0.8	0.1	0.2	0.5	0.3
Government final consumption expenditure	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.4	-0.3	0.6
Gross capital formation	-0.2	1.3	1.2	0.3	0.9	2.6
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	2.0	1.3	0.4	0.3	1.4	0.5
GFCF in machinery and equipment	2.2	2.7	1.2	0.5	2.3	0.3
GFCF in construction	2.5	0.7	-0.1	0.2	1.6	0.6
GFCF in other products	0.5	0.4	0.2	0.4	-0.5	0.3
Domestic uses	0.5	0.8	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.9
Exports	2.3	1.1	1.2	1.7	-0.3	0.7
Imports	1.0	1.8	0.8	1.3	-0.2	1.7
Gross domestic product (GDP)	1.1	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.5
memorandum item:
GDP per person in employment	0.7	0.2	0.3	0.2	-0.1	0.3
GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 1	0.3	0.6	-0.1	0.7	-0.2	-.07
Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP in percentage points
Consumption expenditure	0.5	0.5	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	0.4	0.4	0.0	0.1	0.3	0.2
Government final consumption expenditure	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	-0.1	0.1
Gross capital formation	0.0	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.5
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.1
GFCF in machinery and equipment	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.0
GFCF in construction	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.1
GFCF in other products	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Changes in inventories and so on	-0.4	0.0	0.2	0.0	-0.1	0.4
Domestic uses	0.4	0.7	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.8
Balance of exports and imports (net exports)	0.7	-0.2	0.3	0.3	-0.1	-0.4

  

Gross value added by economic sector

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
					1st qtr	2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	25.683	19.901	21.054	25.472	5.378	5.495
Industry, excluding construction	681.773	710.116	747.836	772.523	197.224	201.479
including:
Manufacturing	601.431	630.671	666.300	690.213	175.165	182.001
Construction	119.974	125.771	133.905	144.300	31.863	39.809
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services	417.908	440.443	456.189	478.409	116.352	126.550
Information and communication	125.172	128.775	133.195	137.237	35.823	34.643
Financial and insurance activities	109.396	111.568	113.056	113.337	28.137	28.228
Real estate activities	293.374	302.353	308.254	316.158	81.398	81.046
Business services	289.107	301.403	308.710	319.354	82.259	80.218
Public services, education, health	476.363	492.954	512.317	531.297	137.417	134.096
Other services	107.694	112.053	113.224	116.609	29.762	29.165
Gross value added, total	2,646.444	2,745.337	2,847.740	2,954.696	745.613	760.729
Price-adjusted, chain-linked
Change on the previous year in %
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	14.0	-14.4	-2.2	3.0	0.3	-0.1
Industry, excluding construction	4.8	2.5	4.8	2.4	1.7	3.2
including:
Manufacturing	5.4	2.5	4.7	2.7	1.8	3.8
Construction	3.6	0.0	1.8	2.4	1.8	2.3
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services	1.6	1.5	1.3	3.4	1.9	2.4
Information and communication	5.2	2.2	3.4	3.6	3.7	4.8
Financial and insurance activities	-5.1	-0.8	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.8
Real estate activities	-0.2	0.2	0.0	1.1	0.9	1.2
Business services	2.5	2.0	1.0	2.6	1.7	3.0
Public services, education,health	0.8	2.3	2.6	1.4	1.4	1.5
Other services	0.2	0.9	-1.1	1.2	0.1	1.4
Gross value added, total	2.2	1.5	2.2	2.2	1.5	2.4

  

Distribution of gross national income

	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
					1st qtr	2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Gross national income	2,996.077	3,114.633	3,222.405	3,346.282	850.992	845.874
Net national income (factor costs)	2,187.143	2,279.791	2,363.723	2,456.391	621.178	615.354
Compensation of employees	1,485.437	1,542.901	1,600.975	1,668.810	407.916	427.023
Property and entrepreneurial income	701.706	736.890	762.748	787.581	213.262	188.331
Gross wages and salaries of employees	1,213.023	1,261.373	1,311.859	1,366.618	333.596	349.616
Net wages and salaries of employees	807.186	837.187	869.114	902.933	220.774	225.770
memorandum item:
Disposable income of households	1,711.314	1,755.199	1,807.726	1,869.916	481.645	480.780
Savings ratio (in %)	9.5	9.7	9.8	9.9	13.5	9.9
Change on the previous year in %
Gross national income	3.7	4.0	3.5	3.8	3.1	4.2
Net national income (factor costs)	4.0	4.2	3.7	3.9	2.9	4.1
Compensation of employees	3.9	3.9	3.8	4.2	4.6	4.7
Property and entrepreneurial income	4.1	5.0	3.5	3.3	-0.1	3.0
Gross wages and salaries of employees	3.9	4.0	4.0	4.2	4.8	4.9
Net wages and salaries of employees	3.7	3.7	3.8	3.9	4.8	4.9
memorandum item:
Disposable income of households	2.5	2.6	3.0	3.4	3.5	3.2