Press release No. 162 of 13 May 2016
WIESBADEN – The German economy gained pace at the start of this year. In the first quarter of 2016, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.7% on the fourth quarter of 2015 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The moderate growth path of last year (+0.3% in the last quarter of 2015) thus accelerated, reports the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).
The quarter-on-quarter comparison – following price, seasonal and calendar adjustment – shows that positive contributions mainly came from domestic demand, according to provisional calculations. The final consumption expenditure of both households and general government increased at the beginning of the year. Capital formation was higher, too. Due to the continued mild weather, fixed capital formation in construction as well as machinery and equipment was markedly up compared with the fourth quarter of 2015. According to provisional calculations, however, the development of foreign trade had a slight downward effect on growth because imports increased more markedly than exports.
The German economy grew year on year, too. In the first quarter of 2016, the price-adjusted GDP was up 1.3% and, after calendar adjustment, 1.6% because there was one working day less than a year earlier.
The economic performance in the first quarter of 2016 was achieved by 43.1 million persons in employment, which was an increase of 533,000 or 1.3% on a year earlier.
In the context of the first calculation of data for the first quarter of 2016, the Federal Statistical Office also revised – and modified where necessary – the national accounting results published previously for the individual quarters of 2015 and the year as a whole. This did not result in any changes of the gross domestic product data published so far.
| Unadjusted figures | Figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally and calendar-adjusted | Calendar-adjusted1 | Calendar effect | ||||||
| 2010 = 100 | %2 | 2010 = 100 | %3 | 2010 = 100 | %2 | %2 | ||
| 1 For years the calendar-adjusted values are identical with the seasonally and calendar-adjusted values (except for differences due to rounding). 2 Change on the previous year or the same quarter of the preceding year in %. 3 Change on the previous year or previous quarter in %. | ||||||||
| 2015 | 107.85 | 1.7 | 107.75 | 1.4 | 107.75 | 1.4 | 0.2 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 106.60 | 1.3 | 107.21 | 0.4 | 106.77 | 1.2 | 0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 106.50 | 1.6 | 107.63 | 0.4 | 106.80 | 1.6 | 0.0 | |
| 3rd qtr | 110.08 | 1.7 | 107.93 | 0.3 | 109.85 | 1.7 | 0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | 108.21 | 2.1 | 108.22 | 0.3 | 107.57 | 1.3 | 0.8 | |
| 2016 | 1st qtr | 107.95 | 1.3 | 108.94 | 0.7 | 108.49 | 1.6 | – 0.3 |
| Unadjusted figures | Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Euro billion | Change in %1 | Euro billion | Change in %2 | ||
| 1 Change on the previous year or the same quarter of the preceding year in %. 2 Change on the previous year or previous quarter in %. | |||||
| 2015 | 3,025.900 | 3.8 | 3, 022.993 | 3.5 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | 739.440 | 3.3 | 746.920 | 1.2 |
| 2nd qtr | 743.420 | 3.7 | 754.153 | 1.0 | |
| 3rd qtr | 770.120 | 3.7 | 756.957 | 0.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 772.920 | 4.4 | 764.963 | 1.1 | |
| 2016 | 1st qtr | 762.310 | 3.1 | 772.532 | 1.0 |
More detailed results will be released by the Federal Statistical Office on 24 May 2016.
A long time series with quarterly results on the gross domestic product starting with the first quarter of 1970 is available here.