Press release 057 / 2013-02-14:Gross domestic product down by 0.6% in the 4th quarter of 2012

WIESBADEN- The German economy suffered a dip towards the end of 2012: compared with the previous quarter, the gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2012 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The German economy grew in the first three quarters of 2012 (by 0.5%, 0.3% and 0.2%), but clearly lost steam in the process. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports an increase of 0.7% for the whole of 2012 as a result (0.9% in calendar-adjusted terms). This is in line with the first calculation of January this year.

Compared with a year earlier, however, the gross domestic product did not go down in the fourth quarter of 2012: the price-adjusted GDP was 0.1% higher than in the fourth quarter of 2011.

In a quarter-on-quarter comparison (adjusted for price, seasonal and calendar variations), signals from the domestic territory were rather mixed according to provisional calculations: household and government final consumption expenditure went up slightly. In contrast, gross fixed capital formation in construction decreased a bit and gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment was down markedly on the third quarter of 2012. The decline of the gross domestic product at the end of 2012 was mainly due to the comparably weak German foreign trade: in the final quarter of 2012, exports of goods went down much more than imports of goods.

The statistical carry-over effect of 2012 is -0.3%. That is the rate of change of GDP which would be recorded for 2013 if the seasonally and calendar-adjusted GDP remained at the level of the fourth quarter of 2012 for the entire year of 2013.

The economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2012 was achieved by 41.9 million persons in employment, which was an increase of 320,000 persons or 0.8% on a year earlier. 

In addition to the first calculation of data for the fourth quarter of 2012, the Federal Statistical Office reviewed the national accounts results published so far for the first three quarters of 2012 and for the year 2012. There have been no changes to the gross domestic product.

The Federal Statistical Office will release more detailed results on 22 February 2013. 

Gross domestic product
Price-adjusted, chain-linked

		Unadjusted figures		Figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA
				Seasonally and calendar-adjusted		Calendar effect
		2005 = 100	2005 = 100	2005 = 100
1For years, the calendar-adjusted values are identical with the seasonally and calendar-adjusted values (except fordifferences due to rounding). 2 Change on the previous year or the same quarter of the preceding year. 3 Change on the previous year or quarter. qtr = quarter
2011		110.21	3.0	110.07	3.1	110.07	3.1	-0.1
2012		110.94	0.7	111.02	0.9	111.02	0.9	-0.2
2011	1stqtr	108.42	5.2	109.53	1.2	108.18	4.9	0.3
	2ndqtr	109.49	3.1	110.03	0.5	109.31	3.0	0.1
	3rdqtr	112.64	2.6	110.43	0.4	112.56	2.7	-0.1
	4thqtr	110.28	1.4	110.27	-0.1	110.21	1.9	-0.5
2012	1stqtr	110.26	1.7	110.83	0.5	109.51	1.2	0.5
	2ndqtr	110.04	0.5	111.13	0.3	110.39	1.0	-0.5
	3rdqtr	113.08	0.4	111.39	0.2	113.53	0.9	-0.5
	4thqtr	110.40	0.1	110.73	-0.6	110.64	0.4	-0.3

Gross domestic product at current prices

		Unadjusted figures		Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures according to Census X-12-ARIMA
		EURbn.	EURbn.
1 Change on the previous year or the same quarter of the preceding year. 2 Change on the previous year or quarter. qtr = quarter
2011		2,592.60	3.9	2,589.26	3.9
2012		2,643.90	2.0	2,645.67	2.2
2011	1stqtr	633.01	5.8	641.73	1.4
	2ndqtr	637.56	4.1	646.75	0.8
	3rdqtr	663.12	3.5	650.28	0.5
	4thqtr	658.91	2.2	650.50	0.0
2012	1stqtr	651.25	2.9	656.92	1.0
	2ndqtr	648.60	1.7	661.10	0.6
	3rdqtr	674.85	1.8	664.92	0.6
	4thqtr	669.20	1.6	662.73	-0.3

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

For further information please contact:
National accounts info team,
tel: +49 611 75 2626,

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