Press release No. 321 of 27 August 2019

Gross domestic product (GDP), 2^nd quarter of 2019
-0.1% on the previous quarter (price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted)
0.0% on the same quarter a year earlier (price adjusted)
+0.4% on the same quarter a year earlier (price- and calendar-adjusted)

WIESBADEN - 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. As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reported in its first release of 14 August 2019, Germany experienced a slight decline in economic performance. In the first quarter of 2019, the German economy had grown by 0.4%.

Gross domestic product, price-adjusted (and adjusted for seasonal and calendar-effects using X13)
Changes on a quarter earlier (percent):

2017				2018				2019
1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr
1.2	0.6	0.9	0.7	0.1	0.4	-0.1	0.2	0.4	-0.1

Foreign trade slowed down growth, consumption expenditure and capital formation supported economic activity
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%).

Stagnation compared with the previous year, slight increase after calendar adjustment
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.

Real gross domestic product (unadjusted figures)
Changes on a year earlier (percent):

2017				2018				2019
1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr	3rd qtr	4th qtr	1st qtr	2nd qtr
3.6	1.0	2.5	2.8	1.6	2.5	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.0

Number of persons in employment up also in 2^nd quarter of 2019

The economic performance in the second quarter of 2019 was achieved by 45.2 million persons in employment, which was an increase of 435,000, or 1.0%, on a year earlier (see press release 312/19 of 20 August 2019).

Overall labour productivity (price-adjusted gross domestic product per hour worked by persons in employment) was basically on the level of the previous year, according to provisional calculations. Labour productivity per person in employment was down 0.9%.

Investment growth slowing in a year-on-year comparison

Compared with a year earlier, there were mixed signals regarding domestic demand in the second quarter of 2019. Price-adjusted household final consumption expenditure rose by 1.5% and government final consumption expenditure by 1.9%. However, investment growth slowed. Compared with the second quarter of 2018, price-adjusted gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment increased by a mere 1.5%. Gross fixed capital formation in construction was up by 2.2%. A year-on-year increase was recorded especially in housing construction. On the whole, domestic uses rose by 1.3%.

Largest decline of exports in six years

Foreign trade slowed down economic growth also in a year-on-year comparison. According to provisional calculations, price-adjusted exports were down 0.8%. This is the largest decline recorded in the last six years. In contrast, price-adjusted imports of goods and services increased by 1.8% on a year earlier.

Gross value added down in manufacturing

On the production side of the gross domestic product, real gross value added was higher in almost all economic sectors in the second quarter of 2019 than in the second quarter of 2018. Due to the strong decline in the economic performance of manufacturing (-4.9%), however, which accounts for somewhat more than one fifth of German value added, the total real value added was slightly below the level of the previous year (-0.1%). The highest growth rates were recorded for information and communication (+3.3%) and construction (+2.8%).

Strong increase in compensation of employees

At current prices, the gross domestic product increased by 2.1% and the gross national income by 2.3% in the second quarter of 2019 compared with the same quarter of 2018. Net national income at factor cost rose a total 2.7%, with the two components showing quite different trends. While the compensation of employees increased substantially (+4.5%), property and entrepreneurial income was down 1.9% according to first provisional calculations. Gross wages and salaries of employees were up 4.3% from the second quarter of 2018, net wages and salaries even 4.8%. On average, wages and salaries per employee did not rise that much (3.1% in gross terms and 3.6% in net terms) because the number of employees continued to increase as well (+1.2%) compared with the same quarter one year earlier. The disposable income of households rose by 3.1%, at the same rate as household final consumption expenditure at current prices.

Information on the major revision of national accounts

In addition to the calculation of first data for the second quarter of 2019, all national accounts calculations have been thoroughly reviewed and revised as of this date as part of the 2019 major revision. To avoid breaks in the time series, the results for Germany were recalculated back to 1991 so that modified results may appear in the whole time series from 1991 onwards. As reported in the first release of 14 August 2019, the overall economic picture remained largely unchanged. On the whole, the change rates of the real gross domestic product were adjusted by an average 0.1 percentage points (mean absolute revision). In some quarters, however, there have been larger deviations of the revised results of up to 0.6 percentage points. As every year in August, new statistical information was incorporated in the calculations of results for the last four years (from 2015) and for the first quarter of 2019.More information
Further details of the 2019 major revision of national accounts will be provided by the Federal Statistical Office in a background briefing for the press held at Frankfurter PresseClub today at 10 o’clock. Both the relevant material and the results of national accounts are available for download on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.

Gross domestic product

		Unadjusted figures				Real figures using X13
		At current prices		Real terms		Seasonally and calendar-adjusted		calendar-adjusted
		EUR billion	%1	2015 = 100	%1	2015=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
2015		3,030.07	3.5	100.00	1.7	99.90	1.5	1.5
2016		3,134.10	3.4	102.23	2.2	102.04	2.1	2.1
2017		3,244.99	3.5	104.75	2.5	104.87	2.8	2.8
2018		3,344.37	3.1	106.35	1.5	106.49	1.5	1.5
2015	1st qtr	738.03	3.0	98.03	1.3	99.10	-0.2	1.2
	2nd qtr	743.60	3.7	98.51	1.8	99.72	0.6	1.8
	3rd qtr	766.75	3.5	101.06	1.8	100.17	0.5	1.7
	4th qtr	781.69	3.9	102.40	2.1	100.61	0.4	1.3
2016	1st qtr	762.12	3.3	99.97	2.0	101.41	0.8	2.4
	2nd qtr	779.71	4.9	102.14	3.7	101.99	0.6	2.3
	3rd qtr	789.19	2.9	102.96	1.9	102.20	0.2	2.0
	4th qtr	803.08	2.7	103.85	1.4	102.57	0.4	1.9
2017	1st qtr	793.76	4.2	103.58	3.6	103.79	1.2	2.4
	2nd qtr	796.10	2.1	103.17	1.0	104.37	0.6	2.3
	3rd qtr	818.42	3.7	105.54	2.5	105.27	0.9	3.0
	4th qtr	836.71	4.2	106.71	2.8	106.04	0.7	3.4
2018	1st qtr	819.26	3.2	105.28	1.6	106.18	0.1	2.3
	2nd qtr	827.66	4.0	105.75	2.5	106.59	0.4	2.1
	3rd qtr	836.96	2.3	106.69	1.1	106.48	-0.1	1.1
	4th qtr	860.49	2.8	107.66	0.9	106.70	0.2	0.6
2019	1st qtr	842.07	2.8	106.15	0.8	107.11	0.4	0.9
	2nd qtr	844.73	2.1	105.78	0.0	107.03	-0.1	0.4

 

Use of the gross domestic product
Unadjusted figures 

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
					1st qtr	2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Consumption expenditure	2,194.938	2,269.811	2,341.306	2,409.282	598.364	614.376
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	1,602.250	1,649.797	1,696.964	1,743.685	430.772	445.318
Government final consumption expenditure	592.688	620.014	644.342	665.597	167.592	169.058
Gross capital formation	605.997	633.518	673.242	729.029	186.654	177.310
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	605.941	636.421	665.889	707.719	170.415	188.679
GFCF in construction	291.243	307.923	320.730	344.300	83.849	96.201
GFCF in machinery and equipment	206.943	214.125	224.194	235.280	55.517	60.187
GFCF in other products	107.755	114.373	120.965	128.139	31.049	32.291
Domestic uses	2,800.935	2,903.329	3,014.548	3,138.311	785.018	791.686
Exports	1,419.545	1,442.413	1,538.042	1,585.770	405.711	401.300
Imports	1,190.410	1,211.642	1,307.600	1,379.711	348.659	348.256
Gross domestic product (GDP)	3,030.070	3,134.100	3,244.990	3,344.370	842.070	844.730
Price-adjusted
Change on the previous year in %
Consumption expenditure	2.1	2.8	1.6	1.3	1.2	1.6
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	1.9	2.3	1.3	1.3	1.0	1.5
Government final consumption expenditure	2.8	4.1	2.4	1.4	1.9	1.9
Gross capital formation	-0.2	4.1	5.1	4.9	3.2	0.2
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	1.8	3.8	2.4	3.5	4.6	2.1
GFCF in construction	-1.4	3.8	0.7	2.5	6.6	2.2
GFCF in machinery and equipment	4.4	3.0	4.0	4.4	2.7	1.5
GFCF in other products	5.9	5.2	4.2	4.3	3.0	2.7
Domestic uses	1.6	3.0	2.4	2.1	1.7	1.3
Exports	5.5	2.4	4.9	2.1	2.1	-0.8
Imports	5.8	4.3	5.2	3.6	4.3	1.8
Gross domestic product (GDP)	1.7	2.2	2.5	1.5	0.8	0.0
memorandum item:
GDP per person in employment	0,8	1,0	1,1	0,1	-0,3	-0,9
GDP per hour worked by persons in employment	0,8	1,4	1,3	0,3	-0,6	0,0
Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP in percentage points
Consumption expenditure	1.6	2.0	1.2	1.0	0.9	1.1
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	1.0	1.2	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.8
Government final consumption expenditure	0.5	0.8	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.4
Gross capital formation	0.0	0.8	1.0	1.0	0.7	0.1
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	0.4	0.8	0.5	0.7	0.9	0.5
GFCF in construction	-0.1	0.4	0.1	0.3	0.6	0.2
GFCF in machinery and equipment	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.1
GFCF in other products	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1
Changes in inventories and so on	-0.4	0.1	0.5	0.3	-0.2	-0.4
Domestic uses	1.5	2.8	2.2	2.0	1.6	1.2
Balance of exports and imports (net exports)	0.2	-0.6	0.3	-0.4	-0.7	-1.1

 Use of the gross domestic product
Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures using X 13

	2018				2019
	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	596.423	600.614	604.182	609.120	614.463	619.967
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	432.280	434.833	437.172	440.457	443.908	447.535
Government final consumption expenditure	164.143	165.781	167.010	168.663	170.555	172.432
Gross capital formation	174.030	180.612	185.047	190.966	184.814	188.721
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	173.101	176.106	178.879	181.955	186.038	186.921
GFCF in construction	83.369	85.500	87.341	89.424	92.723	92.628
GFCF in machinery and equipment	58.454	58.812	59.261	59.741	60.566	61.108
GFCF in other products	31.278	31.794	32.277	32.790	32.749	33.185
Domestic uses	770.453	781.226	789.229	800.086	799.277	808.688
Exports	393.784	398.153	398.796	400.854	407.555	402.019
Imports	335.917	343.241	350.730	353.814	354.665	354.324
Gross domestic product (GDP)	828.320	836.138	837.295	847.126	852.167	856.383
Real terms
Change on the previous quarter in %
Consumption expenditure	0.1	0.3	0.1	0.4	0.8	0.2
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	0.1	0.2	0.0	0.4	0.8	0.1
Government final consumption expenditure	0.0	0.6	0.1	0.4	0.8	0.5
Gross capital formation	0.5	2.4	2.8	0.5	-3.0	1.4
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	0.9	1.0	0.7	0.9	1.6	-0.1
GFCF in construction	0.5	1.3	0.7	1.2	2.5	-1.0
GFCF in machinery and equipment	2.0	0.4	0.5	0.3	1.4	0.6
GFCF in other products	0.2	1.3	1.1	1.2	-0.6	1.0
Domestic uses	0.2	0.8	0.7	0.4	-0.1	0.5
Exports	-0.3	0.6	-0.6	0.2	1.8	-1.3
Imports	-0.4	1.6	1.1	0.7	0.9	-0.3
Gross domestic product (GDP)	0.1	0.4	-0.1	0.2	0.4	-0.1
memorandum item:
GDP per person in employment	-0.3	0.1	-0.4	-0.1	0.1	-0.2
GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 1	-0.1	-0.7	0.0	0.1	-0.1	0.1
Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP in percentage points
Consumption expenditure	0.1	0.2	0.0	0.3	0.6	0.2
Final consumption expenditure of households and NPISHs	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.2	0.4	0.1
Government final consumption expenditure	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.2	0.1
Gross capital formation	0.1	0.5	0.6	0.1	-0.7	0.3
Gross fixed capital formation (GFCF)	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.0
GFCF in construction	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.3	-0.1
GFCF in machinery and equipment	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.0
GFCF in other products	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.1	0.0	0.0
Changes in inventories and so on	-0.1	0.3	0.4	-0.1	-1.0	0.3
Domestic uses	0.2	0.7	0.6	0.4	-0.1	0.5
Balance of exports and imports (net exports)	0.0	-0.4	-0.7	-0.2	0.5	-0.5

  

Gross value added by economic sector

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
					1st qtr	2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	20.719	21.886	26.980	25.706	6.864	7.526
Industry, excluding construction	695.322	729.229	752.738	765.589	189.131	186.684
including:
Manufacturing	617.443	650.129	667.239	682.373	166.500	167.270
Construction	124.753	132.544	137.757	152.833	34.858	42.139
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services	431.811	448.166	467.159	483.694	117.723	127.263
Information and communication	126.397	130.218	133.997	137.999	36.807	34.264
Financial and insurance activities	119.828	118.126	117.851	117.967	29.710	29.813
Real estate activities	300.068	305.191	308.574	315.893	81.599	80.678
Business services	308.004	317.643	334.870	346.356	88.950	84.762
Public services, education, health	490.938	510.567	531.431	553.137	141.482	138.883
Other services	108.084	108.233	110.971	113.136	28.874	28.727
Gross value added, total	2,725.924	2,821.803	2,922.328	3,012.310	755.998	760.739
Price-adjusted
Change on the previous year in %
Agriculture, forestry and fishing	-13.6	-1.7	-2.7	-1.3	2.5	3.5
Industry, excluding construction	1.3	4.3	3.2	1.3	-2.1	-4.7
including:
Manufacturing	0.9	4.2	3.1	1.5	-2.2	-4.9
Construction	-0.3	2.0	-0.6	3.4	6.6	2.8
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services	1.9	1.4	2.9	1.8	2.1	1.2
Information and communication	1.3	2.8	3.5	3.1	3.2	3.3
Financial and insurance activities	-0.9	-3.6	3.8	-0.1	1.8	2.6
Real estate activities	1.2	0.0	-1.0	1.1	0.9	1.5
Business services	2.1	1.9	3.7	2.2	1.3	0.5
Public services, education,health	3.5	4.2	3.4	1.2	1.2	1.2
Other services	0.9	-2.0	0.8	0.1	1.2	1.0
Gross value added, total	1.5	2.2	2.5	1.5	0.8	-0.1

  

Distribution of gross national income

	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
					1st qtr	2nd qtr
qtr = quarter
At current prices
EUR bn
Gross national income	3,099.023	3,211.263	3,328.026	3,437.908	868.524	855.337
Net national income (factor costs)	2,259.375	2,346.118	2,430.531	2,503.079	630.835	618.640
Compensation of employees	1,564.843	1,625.097	1,694.689	1,771.278	431.878	451.841
Property and entrepreneurial income	694.532	721.021	735.842	731.801	198.957	166.799
Gross wages and salaries of employees	1,285.484	1,337.435	1,394.041	1,460.927	354.696	371.181
Net wages and salaries of employees	863.320	896.862	931.954	975.505	238.480	243.517
memorandum item:
Disposable income of households	1,723.693	1,779.642	1,834.069	1,898.499	489.299	482.181
Savings ratio (in %)	10.1	10.2	10.4	11.0	14.5	10.4
Change on the previous year in %
Gross national income	3.8	3.6	3.6	3.3	2.8	2.3
Net national income (factor costs)	4.0	3.8	3.6	3.0	2.9	2.7
Compensation of employees	4.0	3.9	4.3	4.5	4.4	4.5
Property and entrepreneurial income	3.8	3.8	2.1	-0.5	-0.3	-1.9
Gross wages and salaries of employees	4.2	4.0	4.2	4.8	4.3	4.3
Net wages and salaries of employees	4.0	3.9	3.9	4.7	4.8	4.8
memorandum item:
Disposable income of households	2.7	3.2	3.1	3.5	2.3	3.1

More information
Further details of the 2019 major revision of national accounts will be provided by the Federal Statistical Office in a background briefing for the press held at Frankfurt PresseClub today at 10 o’clock. Both the relevant material and the results of national accounts are available for download on the website of the Federal Statistical Office (German only).

More detailed results will be published in Fachserie 18 “National Accounts“, Series 1.2 “Quarterly results“ and Series 1.3„Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using X13“.

Visualised updated results are also available in our interactive national accounts dashboard. (German only)

The above and other current national accounting results are available in the GENESIS-Online database.