Press release No. N014 of 17 March 2022

WIESBADEN – The continuing Covid pandemic and the delivery and material bottlenecks involved have had a stronger impact on the German economy than on the economic development of most of the other Member States of the European Union (EU). The price, seasonally and calendar adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) for Germany was still 1.1% lower in the fourth quarter of 2021 than in the fourth quarter of 2019, that is the quarter before the Covid crisis broke out. The economic performance in 20 other EU Member States had reached, or exceeded, the respective pre-crisis level already at the end of 2021, as is reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The data do not reflect the current developments in the context of the Ukraine war.

“The fourth Covid-19 wave considerably slowed the recovery of the German economy towards the end of the year”, said Dr. Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office. “This is shown by the pre-crisis comparison in a European context, especially regarding household final consumption expenditure and gross value added in manufacturing, but also employment.”

The GDP fell farther below the pre-crisis level than in Germany (-1.1%) only in Spain (-4.0%), the Czech Republic (-1.9%), Portugal (-1.4%) and Slovakia (-1.2%). The EU countries with the largest economic growth when compared with the pre-crisis level were Ireland (+15.3%), Estonia (+7.2%) and Slovenia (+6.6%), according to the European statistical office Eurostat. With an economic growth of 3.2% compared with the pre-crisis level, the United States have got much better through the Covid-19 pandemic than the EU (+0.6%).

Also, the number of persons in employment in Germany in the fourth quarter of 2021 had not yet reached the level of the fourth quarter of 2019. At the end of 2021, the number of persons in employment in Germany was by 0.4% smaller than before the Covid-19 pandemic, in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms. This decrease is mainly due to sharp falls in the number of marginally employed persons, whereas the number of employees subject to social insurance has already exceeded its pre-crisis level. In the EU as a whole, employment was up by 0.6%. Noticeable employment gains were recorded, for example, in Ireland (+5.4%), the Netherlands (+2.2%) and France (+1.6%). However, in contrast to these economies, Germany had entered the pandemic in a situation of full employment. It has not been possible so far to achieve that level again.

Household consumption expenditure recovers only slowly in many countries

In many EU countries, price, seasonally and calendar adjusted household final consumption expenditure has not yet recovered from the slumps recorded in the context of the Covid protective measures of the last two years. The only country whose household final consumption expenditure fell farther below its pre-crisis level than in Germany (-3.8%) was Spain (-7.9%). In some EU countries, consumption was higher than before the pandemic in the fourth quarter of 2021 (e.g. Lithuania, +6.8%), whereas in other economies the pre-crisis level was just reached (e.g. France, +0.1%) or has not been achieved yet (e.g. Italy, -3.3%).

Relatively large rise of government final consumption expenditure in Germany

Government final consumption expenditure was markedly raised during the Covid-19 pandemic in almost all EU Member States. Government consumption expenditure in Germany rose more strongly in a pre-crisis comparison (+6.3%) than in other large economies such as Spain (+6.0%), France (+4.1%) and Italy (+2.6%). There were however still larger increases of government final consumption expenditure in smaller EU countries such as Ireland (+17.2%) or Croatia (+16.9%).

Lower capital formation in machinery and equipment in Germany

There were diverging trends in gross fixed capital formation between countries. The decreases in gross fixed capital formation in Germany or the Netherlands were mainly due to markedly lower fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment. In some EU countries such as Italy and Romania, however, markedly higher fixed capital formation in construction was the main driving force for rising gross fixed capital formation in a pre-crisis comparison.

International trade above pre-crisis level again in almost all EU countries

After the Covid-19 pandemic had slowed international trade considerably, exports and imports in part increased markedly in the EU as a whole and in most Member States in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with the time before the coronavirus crisis started. Compared with pre-crisis levels, the 2.3% increase recorded for German exports was below the EU average whereas the 2.9% increase of German imports was above that average. Especially in France, both exports (‑3.2%) and imports (-0.7%) remained even below their pre-crisis levels.

Manufacturing recovering only slowly in most large EU countries

In all of Europe, the various economic sectors have so far recovered only partly from the effects of the continuing Covid-19 pandemic. At the end of 2021, manufacturing had not completely made up for the losses of the past two years especially in the large economies of Germany, France and Spain. In some of the smaller countries such as Ireland (+35.8%), Lithuania (+17.1%) and Greece (+16.7%), however, the gross value added in manufacturing was markedly higher in the fourth quarter of 2021 than in the fourth quarter of 2019, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. In these countries, the economic performance of manufacturing had actually declined only slightly in the course of the Covid-19 crisis or not at all. This is due to the fact that the automotive industry, which has been strongly affected by delivery bottlenecks and material shortages, accounts for only a small share of manufacturing in these countries.

Country-specific developments in construction

In construction, the development varies even more by country. While the gross value added in that sector was +2.7% in Germany, there were double-digit growth rates in Hungary (+19.5%) and Italy (+19.1%) compared with pre-crisis levels. In Spain (-14.1%) and Bulgaria (-13.0%), however, the gross value added still remained far below the respective pre-crisis levels in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Service branches hit strongly by pandemic in all of Europe

Many service branches in Europe were strongly affected by the Covid-19 preventive measures. In trade, transport, accommodation and food services, the gross value added had not reached pre-crisis levels in more than half of the EU countries at the end of 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the economic performance of other services, which include entertainment and recreation, also remained far below the levels of the fourth quarter of 2019 in nearly all economies. Here Spain was affected the most (-26.0%), then followed Latvia (-25.4%) and Slovakia (-23.0%). In Germany, the strong decline on the pre-crisis quarter recorded for other services (-11.7%) was comparable with the EU average.

Considerable increase in the information and communication sector

The gross value added in information and communication went up in nearly all EU countries during the Covid-19 crisis. On an international scale, the increase was comparatively small in Germany (+3.6%). The largest rises compared with the pre-crisis levels were seen by Ireland (+36.6%), Estonia (+29.1%) and Romania (+25.0%). Across the EU, the economic performance in Spain (+0.2%) is an exception as there was only a slight increase on the pre-crisis level.

More information

For interactive graphics and statistics on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic for the EU countries please go to our EU Monitor COVID-19. A comparison of the EU Member States’ growth rates is also provided on our webpage Europe in figures. Visualised results of national accounts for Germany are available in our interactive National Accounts Monitor for Germany.

Results for the gross domestic product are available also in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators of official statistics and from other data providers on the topics of economy and finance as well as health and mobility.