German GDP

Eurozone GDP fell by 0.1%  and by 0.3% in the EU27 during the second quarter of 2009, compared with the previous quarter, according to flash estimates published today by the EU statistics office. In the first quarter of 2009, growth rates were -2.5% in the Eurozone and -2.4% in the EU27.  The German economy expanded slightly in the second quarter of 2009 for the first time since the first quarter of 2008, according to the German statistics office Destatis. Gross domestic product increased 0.3% in the second quarter of 2009 on the previous quarter.Compared with the second quarter of 2008, the price-adjusted GDP product was down 7.1%. Germany's economic performance decreased 5.9% on a year earlier. The French economy also expanded 0.3% in the latest quarter.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP decreased by 4.6% in the Eurozone and by 4.8% in the EU27 in the second quarter of 2009, after -4.9% and -4.7% respectively in the previous quarter.

During the second quarter of 2009, US GDP decreased by 0.3% compared with the previous quarter, after -1.6% in the first quarter. US GDP decreased by 3.9% compared with the same quarter of the previous year (-3.3% in the previous quarter).

The Eurozone (EA16) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

Destatis said German household and government final consumption expenditure and also capital formation in construction exerted a positive impact compared with the previous quarter. As price-adjusted imports declined far more sharply than exports, the balance of exports and imports also had a positive effect on GDP growth. However, declining inventories had a negative effect on growth.

The economic performance in the second quarter of 2009 was achieved by 40.2 million persons in employment, which was a decrease of 25,000 persons or 0.1% on a year earlier.

In addition to the first calculation of data for the second quarter, the results published so far for the last four years (from 2005) were revised at the same time, as is the case every year in August. Such continuous revisions are carried out routinely to integrate newly available statistical information into the calculations. Hence, the GDP calculation is successively put on an ever better founded data basis in statistical terms.

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