Press release No. 205 of 24 May 2024
Gross domestic product (GDP), 1st quarter of 2024
+0.2% on the previous quarter (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-0.9% on the same quarter a year earlier (price adjusted)
-0.2% on the same quarter a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – The gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.2% in the 1st quarter of 2024 compared with the 4th quarter of 2023 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this confirms the result published in the first release of 30 April 2024. “After GDP declined at the end of 2023, the German economy started 2024 with positive growth,” says Ruth Brand, President of the Federal Statistical Office.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr |
| 1.0 | -0.1 | 0.4 | -0.4 | 0.3 | -0.1 | 0.1 | -0.5 | 0.2 |
Exports and capital formation support economic performance – final consumption expenditure down
Despite declining inflation, household final consumption expenditure did not recover in the 1st quarter of 2024. It was down 0.4% on the previous quarter, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment, as final consumption expenditure on food and clothing, for example, decreased. Government final consumption expenditure was also 0.4% lower than in the previous quarter.
By contrast, investment was up from the 4th quarter of 2023: following a weak second half of 2023, gross fixed capital formation in construction rose significantly by 2.7% in the 1st quarter of 2024, after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. On the other hand, gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment fell slightly (-0.2%). Overall, gross fixed capital formation at the start of the year was up 1.2% on the previous quarter.
Positive contributions also came from foreign trade: in the 1st quarter of 2024, total exports of goods and services were up 1.1% on the 4th quarter of 2023, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. This result was primarily due to increased exports of goods (+2.1%), while fewer services were exported than in the previous quarter (-2.9%). Quarter-on-quarter growth in imports was less pronounced (+0.6%). As with exports, imports of goods increased (+2.1%), while imports of services declined (-3.7%).
Gross value added: moderate increase in industry, significant increase in construction
In the 1st quarter of 2024, the price, seasonally and calendar adjusted gross value added increased by a total of 0.3% from the previous quarter. At 2.5%, the biggest growth was reported in the construction industry, a development which was largely attributable to more favourable weather conditions than in the last quarter of 2023. Within manufacturing, there was a particular increase in the production of intermediate goods, especially in energy-intensive branches. On the other hand, the production of capital goods declined, for example in the manufacture of machinery and equipment and the production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers. Overall, in the 1st quarter of 2024 the manufacturing sector registered moderate growth of 0.2% on the previous quarter, after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. In the area of trade, transport, accommodation and food services, gross value added rose by 0.4% in the 1st quarter of 2024 (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted), after declining significantly at the end of 2023.
Gross domestic product down year on year
GDP in the 1st quarter of 2024 was down a price adjusted 0.9% compared with the 1st quarter of 2023. The decrease was smaller (-0.2%) after price and calendar adjustment as there were 1.6 fewer working days than in the same period a year earlier despite 2024 being a leap year. This is mainly due to the fact that Easter was early this year and some of the Easter public holidays fell in the 1st quarter, in contrast to the previous year.
| 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr |
| 4.3 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | -0.3 | -0.5 | -0.4 | -0.9 |
Substantial decline in capital formation – positive contributions from government final consumption expenditure
Unlike in the quarter-on-quarter comparison, investment in the 1st quarter of 2024 was down considerably when compared with the previous year. Compared with the 1st quarter of 2023, gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment was down 4.4% and gross fixed capital formation in construction was down 2.1% (price adjusted). By contrast, final consumption expenditure (total) was up on the same quarter a year earlier, increasing by a price adjusted 0.5%. While household final consumption expenditure stagnated compared with the same period of the previous year (0.0%), government final consumption expenditure rose by 1.5%.
Foreign trade decreased significantly compared with the same quarter a year earlier: year on year, exports of goods and services were down 2.8% (price adjusted) in the 1st quarter of 2024. Alongside falling exports of goods (-2.2%) driven by declines in the areas of chemicals and chemical products, electrical equipment and metals, exports of services also registered a markedly negative development (-5.4%). This was attributable in part to a drop in revenue from transport services.
Imports on the whole declined even more than exports in the same period (-3.8% after price adjustment). In particular, imports of goods decreased significantly (-4.5%), due especially to lower imports of chemicals and chemical products, electrical equipment and metals. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, imports of services declined by 1.2% (price adjusted), which - as in the case of exports - can also be explained by a drop in transport services.
Substantial year-on-year decline in manufacturing, positive signals from service branches
Price adjusted gross value added decreased by a total of 0.9% in the 1st quarter of 2024 compared with the same quarter of 2023. The development of gross value added was very different in industry and in the service branches. At -4.7%, economic performance in manufacturing registered one of the steepest declines from the 1st quarter of 2023, with value added decreasing particularly in the production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, the manufacture of fabricated metal products and the manufacture of machinery and equipment. In the construction industry, gross value added was down a price adjusted 0.9% on the previous year, which was primarily due to the weak growth in the construction of buildings. By contrast, at the start of the year almost all service branches registered an increase in their gross value added compared with the previous year: while a particularly marked increase in economic performance was registered in 'information and communication' (+1.9%) and 'other services' (+1.7%), a decline in economic performance was only recorded in the area of 'trade, transport, accommodation and food services' (-0.5%) and 'financial and insurance activities' (-1.2%).
Slight increase in employment
The economic performance in the 1st quarter of 2024 was achieved by roughly 45.8 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. This was an increase of 129,000, or 0.3%, on a year earlier (see press release no. 171/24 of 30 April 2024).
On average, fewer hours were worked per person in employment than in the 1st quarter of 2023 (-0.8%). The labour volume of the overall economy - that is, the increased number of persons in employment multiplied by the slightly lower number of hours worked per person in employment - was down 0.6% in the same period. This is shown by provisional calculations of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency.
Overall labour productivity (price adjusted GDP per hour worked by persons in employment) fell by 0.4% on the same quarter of the previous year. Labour productivity per person in employment was 1.2% lower than a year earlier.
Incomes rose more sharply than nominal consumption, savings ratio up on previous year
At current prices, GDP rose by 3.6% and the gross national income by 3.1% in the 1st quarter of 2024 compared with a year earlier. Net national income at factor costs was up 2.2% on the 1st quarter of 2023. According to provisional calculations, compensation of employees was up 6.2%, whereas property and entrepreneurial income was down 5.7%. Average gross wages and salaries per employee rose 6.1% in the 1st quarter of 2024 compared with the same period a year earlier. In terms of net average earnings the increase was somewhat more marked (+7.1%), which was mainly due to the receipt of premiums to compensate for inflation which were not subject to tax and contribution payments. Total gross wages and salaries rose by 6.5% on a year earlier as the number of employees also increased once more.
Compared with the same quarter a year earlier, the rate of growth of household final consumption expenditure at current prices also continued to slow at the start of the year and stood at +2.9% in the 1st quarter of 2024 (4th quarter of 2023: +4.0%). As disposable income increased more (+4.8%) year on year, the savings ratio (14.9%) was higher than in the previous year (13.4%). The last time a higher savings ratio was registered was in the 2nd quarter of 2021.
Germany's economy compared with other countries
Compared with other countries, Germany’s economic performance at the start of the year was slightly below the European average: in the 1st quarter of 2024, economic performance in the European Union (EU) as a whole was up 0.3% on the previous quarter. After price, seasonal and calendar adjustment, the biggest GDP growth among the other large EU Member States was reported in Spain (+0.7%), while GDP growth in France (+0.2%) and in Italy (+0.3%) was similar to that recorded in Germany (+0.2%). With quarter-on-quarter growth of +0.4%, the US economy performed somewhat better than the EU as a whole. Compared with a year earlier, German GDP (-0.2%) was significantly below European GDP (+0.4%).
| USA | Euroarea | EU27 | France | Italy | Spain | Germany | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous quarter: change on the fourth quarter of 2023; Same quarter of the previous year: change on the first quarter of 2023. Source: Eurostat and own calculations | |||||||
| Previous quarter | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.2 |
| Same quarter of the previous year | 3.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 2.4 | -0.2 |
A detailed comparison of the EU Member States’ growth rates is available on our web page "Europe in figures".
Revision of previous results
In addition to calculating data for the 1st quarter of 2024, the Federal Statistical Office also reviewed the results for all four quarters of 2023, and the year 2023. Compared with the first release of 30 April 2024, no changes to the results published so far for the price adjusted gross domestic product have been necessary.
Methodological notes
The differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons of seasonally and calendar adjusted figures with those of the previous month or quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. Year-on-year comparisons enable long-term comparisons of levels and are hardly influenced by seasonal fluctuations.
More information:
More detailed results are contained in tables 81000 of the GENESIS-Online database and our publications Fachserie 18 “National Accounts“, Series 1.2 “Quarterly Results“ and Series 1.3 “Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using X13“. A long time series containing quarterly results on the gross domestic product since the first quarter of 1970 is available in the “Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen“ statistical report (only in German).
GDP data are available also on Dashboard Germany at www.dashboard-deutschland.de (only in German). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor tool (only in German) for real-time economic monitoring.
| Unadjusted figures | Figures according to X13 price adjusted | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At current prices | Price adjusted, chain-linked | 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 | ||||||||
| 2023 | 4,122.21 | 6.3 | 108.01 | -0.2 | 108.03 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
2023 | 1st qtr | 1,012.93 | 7.4 | 108.54 | 0.5 | 108.15 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 1,009.17 | 6.2 | 106.37 | -0.3 | 108.07 | -0.1 | 0.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1,037.07 | 6.2 | 108.67 | -0.5 | 108.22 | 0.1 | 0.0 | |
| 4th qtr | 1,063.04 | 5.6 | 108.45 | -0.4 | 107.68 | -0.5 | -0.2 | |
| 2024 | 1st qtr | 1,049.32 | 3.6 | 107.53 | -0.9 | 107.91 | 0.2 | -0.2 |
| 2023 | 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | |
| 1 Including acquisitions less disposals of valuables and the statistical difference between production and expenditure approach. 2 Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP, percentage points. 3 Only seasonally adjusted. qtr = quarter | |||||
| Unadjusted figures Change on the previous year | |||||
| Final consumption expenditure | -0.8 | -1.2 | -1.1 | -0.1 | 0.5 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | -0.1 | -0.6 | -1.6 | -0.4 | 0.0 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | -2.3 | -2.6 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 1.5 |
| Gross capital formation | 0.5 | 1.0 | -3.5 | -5.0 | -6.2 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | -0.2 | 0.0 | -0.7 | -2.0 | -2.5 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | -4.1 | -2.4 | -2.0 | -2.3 | -2.1 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 7.1 | 4.5 | 1.4 | -1.0 | -4.4 |
| Other fixed assets | -0.8 | -0.8 | -0.6 | -0.3 | -0.5 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | -0.8 | -0.8 | -0.9 |
| Domestic uses | -0.5 | -0.7 | -1.7 | -1.3 | -1.2 |
| Exports | 3.0 | -0.3 | -2.6 | -2.7 | -2.8 |
| Imports | 1.6 | -1.1 | -5.2 | -4.7 | -3.8 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports) 2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 1.0 | 0.3 |
| Gross domestic product | 0.5 | -0.3 | -0.5 | -0.4 | -0.9 |
| memorandum item: | |||||
| GDP per person in employment | -0.5 | -1.2 | -1.2 | -0.9 | -1.2 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment | -0.5 | -1.0 | -0.4 | -0.5 | -0.4 |
| Seasonally and calendar adjusted figures change on the previous quarter | |||||
| Final consumption expenditure | -0.8 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.5 | -0.4 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | -0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | -0.4 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | -1.3 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | -0.4 |
| Gross capital formation | 0.4 | 0.8 | -2.2 | -4.7 | 1.1 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | 1.0 | -0.1 | 0.1 | -2.1 | 1.2 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | 1.5 | -0.5 | -0.7 | -1.9 | 2.7 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 1.9 | 0.7 | 1.4 | -4.0 | -0.2 |
| Other fixed assets | -1.6 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 | -1.1 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | -0.6 | -0.7 | 0.0 |
| Domestic uses | -0.5 | 0.4 | -0.3 | -0.8 | 0.0 |
| Exports | 0.5 | -0.7 | -0.9 | -0.9 | 1.1 |
| Imports | -1.1 | 0.2 | -1.8 | -1.6 | 0.6 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports)2 | 0.8 | -0.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | 0.3 | -0.1 | 0.1 | -0.5 | 0.2 |
| memorandum item: | |||||
| GDP per person in employment | 0.0 | -0.2 | 0.2 | -0.6 | 0.1 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 3 | -0.9 | -0.4 | 0.2 | 0.7 | -0.8 |
| 2023 | 2024 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | |
| qtr = quarter | |||||
| Unadjusted figures Change on the previous year | |||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1.7 | 0.9 | -1.0 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 1.2 | -1.2 | -3.3 | -2.7 | -4.7 |
| including: | |||||
| Manufacturing | 2.9 | 0.7 | -1.4 | -2.5 | -4.7 |
| Construction | -1.9 | -1.1 | 0.8 | 0.3 | -0.9 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 0.3 | -1.7 | -1.3 | -1.2 | -0.5 |
| Information and communication | 2.8 | 3.2 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 1.9 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 1.5 | -0.7 | -1.4 | -3.7 | -1.2 |
| Real estate activities | 0.9 | 0.6 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| Business services | -0.1 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.7 |
| Public services, education, health | 3.0 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Other services | 2.1 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 3.1 | 1.7 |
| Gross value added, total | 1.0 | 0.0 | -0.5 | -0.2 | -0.9 |
| Seasonally and calendar adjusted figures change on the previous quarter | |||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -1.2 | 1.0 | 1.3 | -0.3 | -2.5 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 0.4 | -0.6 | -1.5 | -0.7 | -0.4 |
| including: | |||||
| Manufacturing | 0.7 | 0.0 | -1.1 | -1.7 | 0.2 |
| Construction | 3.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | -2.0 | 2.5 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | -0.8 | 0.0 | 1.3 | -1.3 | 0.4 |
| Information and communication | 0.0 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.2 | -0.9 |
| Financial and insurance activities | -2.7 | -0.7 | 0.8 | -0.9 | -0.2 |
| Real estate activities | 0.9 | 0.3 | 0.8 | -0.6 | 0.7 |
| Business services | -0.1 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | -0.4 |
| Public services, education, health | 1.2 | -0.5 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.1 |
| Other services | 2.7 | 0.2 | 1.2 | -0.4 | 0.9 |
| Gross value added, total | 0.4 | -0.1 | 0.1 | -0.5 | 0.3 |
