Press Gross domestic product up 0.6% in the 2^nd quarter of 2017

Press release No. 277 of 15 August 2017

WIESBADEN – The German economy continues to grow. In the second quarter of 2017, the gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.6% on the previous quarter after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. Based on most recent calculations, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017 had been slightly larger (0.7%)

The quarter-on-quarter comparison (upon adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations) shows that positive contributions came from domestic demand. Final consumption expenditure of both households and general government increased markedly. Capital formation was up, too. There was an increase in fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment, in construction and in other fixed assets compared with the first quarter of 2017. According to provisional calculations, the development of foreign trade, however, had a downward effect on growth because the price-adjusted quarter-on-quarter increase in imports was considerably larger than that of exports.

Year on year the price-adjusted GDP rose 0.8% in the second quarter of 2017 (first quarter of 2017: +3.2%). However, the calendar effect in the first two quarters of 2017 was above average because, in the first quarter, there were 3 working days more and, in the second quarter, there were 3 working days less than a year earlier. When calendar-adjusted, GDP growth in the second quarter of 2017 was 2.1% (following 2.0% in the first quarter of 2017).

The economic performance in the second quarter of 2017 was achieved by 44.2 million persons in employment in the domestic territory, which was an increase of 664,000, or 1.5%, on a year earlier.

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 2013) and for the first quarter of 2017 in the context of the first calculation of data for the second quarter of 2017. Modifications of the seasonally and calendar-adjusted results may appear in the whole time series from 1991 onwards.

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 0.4 percentage points. Especially the GDP change rates for the quarters and the year of 2014 were mainly revised upwards (see table "Comparison between previous and new figures, gross domestic product, price-adjusted, chain-linked").

These regular revisions are routinely carried out to incorporate new statistical information in the relevant calculations. Thus the statistical data basis for calculating the GDP and other macroeconomic aggregates is becoming increasingly reliable. The source statistics required for the 'final' calculation of national accounts results are available in a complete manner after four years at the latest so that the results will only then be final and will need no further regular revision..

More detailed results will be released by the Federal Statistical Office on 25 August 2017. 

A long time series with quarterly results on the gross domestic product starting with the first quarter of 1970 is available here.