Recovery of the German economy continues – GDP 1.1% below pre-crisis level
Press release No. 532 of 25 November 2021
Gross domestic product, 3rd quarter of 2021
1.7% on the previous quarter (price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted)
2.5% on the same quarter a year earlier (price-adjusted)
2.5% on the same quarter a year earlier (price- and calendar-adjusted)
WIESBADEN – The gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 1.7% in the third quarter of 2021 compared with the second quarter of 2021 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The recovery of the German economy thus continued in summer, after the GDP had grown by 2.0% in the second quarter of 2021 (revised result based on most recent calculations). The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the increase in the third quarter of 2021 was by 0.1 percentage points lower than reported in the first release of 29 October 2021. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, the quarter before the coronavirus crisis began, GDP was 1.1% lower.
Loading...
2020 | 2021 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr |
-1.8 | -10.0 | 9.0 | 0.7 | -1.9 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
Household final consumption expenditure supports growth
After domestic demand recorded considerable increases in nearly all sectors in the second quarter of 2021, this applied only to household final consumption expenditure in the third quarter of 2021. It was markedly up by 6.2% (price-, seasonal and calendar-adjusted) on the previous quarter. General government reduced its final consumption expenditure by 2.2%. In the third quarter of 2021, capital formation was down on the second quarter. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment decreased by 3.7%, after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations, gross fixed capital formation in construction by 2.3%.
Foreign trade decreased when compared with the previous quarter. In the third quarter of 2021, exports of goods and services were down 1.0% on the second quarter of 2021, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. Overall, the quarter-on-quarter decrease in imports (-0.6%) was slightly smaller as markedly more services were imported than in the previous quarter, according to first calculations.
Gross value added up in service sector and down in industry
In the third quarter of 2021, the price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted gross value added grew by 1.9%. Diverging trends were shown for the individual economic sectors. Gross value added in manufacturing (-2.2%) and in construction (-1.2%) decreased on the second quarter of 2021, whereas clear signs of recovery were observed in most service branches. Gross value added rose markedly (+13.5%) especially in other services, which include entertainment and recreation. Considerable increases were also recorded for trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+5.3%), business services (+3.4%) and public services, education, health (+3.1%).
Year-on-year increase in gross domestic product
The GDP in the third quarter of 2021 was up a price-adjusted 2.5% on the third quarter of 2020 (also price- and calendar-adjusted). The catching-up process following the historic decreases in 2020 thus continued, though at a slower pace. In the second quarter, a two-digit rise in GDP had been recorded (+10.4%, revised).
2020 | 2021 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr |
-1.5 | -11.3 | -3.6 | -1.9 | -3.2 | 10.4 | 2.5 |
Domestic and foreign demand up on a year earlier, gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment down
Domestic demand in the third quarter of 2021 rose again year on year, although considerable price rises, caused among other things by the temporary value added tax reduction in the second half of 2020, had a downward effect on the catching-up effects. Household final consumption expenditure rose by a price-adjusted 1.6%, and government final consumption expenditure by 2.2%, on a year earlier. People spent markedly more especially on travels. Gross fixed capital formation in construction grew by 2.0% and a particularly significant increase was recorded for gross fixed capital formation in dwellings. However, gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment was down by 1.9%.
Foreign trade increased on a year earlier. Exports of goods and services rose by 5.5% (price-adjusted) in the third quarter of 2021 on the same quarter of the previous year. In the same period, an even larger increase was observed for imports (+8.9%). This is mainly due to the sharp increase in imports of services, in particular household expenditure on travels abroad.
Gross value added up in almost all economic sectors compared with a year earlier
Economic performance in the third quarter of 2021 rose on the third quarter of 2020 in almost all economic sectors. However, the recovery seen in the second quarter markedly slowed in most sectors. The largest increase in price-adjusted gross value added was recorded for business services (+6.1%). Growth was again observed also in public services, education, health (+2.9%) and trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+2.8%), with an even larger increase recorded in the subsectors of accommodation and food services and transport. A year-on-year increase in gross value added was also recorded for construction (+3.5%) and manufacturing (+2.6%).
On the whole, the price adjusted gross value added in the third quarter of 2021 was up 2.6% on the third quarter of 2020.
Employment up, but still below pre-crisis level
The economic performance in the third quarter of 2021 was achieved by roughly 45.1 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. The number of persons in employment increased by 267,000, or 0.6%, on the third quarter of 2020. Although employment is still below pre-crisis level, a marked upward trend is observed (see press release 524/21 of 16 November 2021).
The average number of hours worked per person in employment rose by 1.8% in the third quarter of 2021 compared with the same quarter a year earlier according to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency. The labour volume of the overall economy, which is the total number of hours worked by all persons in employment, was up 2.4% in the same period. This development was influenced by the sharp fall observed in the same quarter of the previous year (base effect). In addition, this shows that short-time work was less often applied, which is not reflected in the number of persons in employment, but in the number of hours worked.
Overall labour productivity (price-adjusted GDP per hour worked by persons in employment) rose by 0.1% on the same quarter of the previous year, according to provisional calculations. Labour productivity per person in employment was 1.9% higher than in the third quarter of 2020.
Savings ratio down on a year earlier
At current prices, the GDP rose by 7.1% and the gross national income by 7.6% in the third quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier. The difference from the price adjusted GDP can be explained mainly by large price increases, part of which are due to the lower value added tax rate in the third quarter of 2020. Net national income at factor cost rose by 6.8%. According to first provisional calculations, the compensation of employees was up by 4.4% year on year, while property and entrepreneurial income rose sharply by 12.8%. However, in the same quarter of the previous year, the decrease in compensation of employees (-0.7%) had been much smaller than that of property and entrepreneurial income (-7.4%).
Average gross and net wages and salaries per employee were markedly up by 3.8% each. This development is mainly due to the sharp fall in short-time work. As, at the same time, employment increased markedly, total gross and net wages and salaries were up by as much as 4.6% in the third quarter of 2021. The disposable income of households was by 2.7% higher than a year earlier. Household final consumption expenditure at current prices rose by 5.5% in the same period. As the increase in household final consumption expenditure was larger than that of disposable income, households now saved less than in the same quarter of the previous year. According to provisional calculations, the savings ratio was 10.7% in the third quarter of 2021, following 16.3% in the previous quarter and 13.1% in the third quarter of 2020. Despite the decrease, the saving propensity was still at a relatively high level.
International and European comparison
In the other large European Union (EU) Member States, economic growth was slightly larger than in Germany in the third quarter of 2021. Compared with the second quarter of 2021, price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted GDP rose 3.0% in France, 2.6% in Italy and 2.0% in Spain. According to provisional calculations, the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) reported a GDP rise of 2.1% on the previous quarter for the EU as a whole. The economic performance of the United States (+0.5%, converted figure) increased less strongly than the German GDP (+1.7%) in the third quarter of 2021.
The GDP growth rates of most EU Member States were higher than in Germany also in a year-on-year comparison. Italy (+3.8%), France (+3.3%) and Spain (+2.7%) recorded stronger economic growth on the third quarter of 2020 than Germany (+2.6%) after price, seasonally and calendaradjustment. For the whole EU, Eurostat released a preliminary result of +3.9% on the same quarter of the previous year. The United States reported a 4.9% increase of GDP.
USA | Eurorarea | EU27 | France | Italy | Spain | Germany | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Previous quarter: change compared to the 2nd quarter of 2021; Quarter of the previous year: Change compared to the 3rd quarter of 2020. | |||||||
Previous quarter | 0.5 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 3.0 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
Same quarter of the previous year | 4.9 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 3.3 | 3.8 | 2.7 | 2.6 |
A detailed comparison of the EU Member States’ growth rates is available on the Federal Statistical Office’s web page “Europe in figures”.
Revision of previous results and methodological notes
The greater uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic may lead to larger revisions than usual. This applies in particular to the seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data. In addition to calculating the detailed results, the Federal Statistical Office also revised the gross domestic product figures for the first three quarters of 2021. Taking into account the statistical information that became available after the first release of 29 October 2021, this resulted in slight revisions of the previous gross domestic product figures of 0.1 percentage points. More detailed data on the recalculations are shown in the table “Comparison between old and new figures” in this press release.
In addition to the regular modifications, corrections were made for the production side of the domestic product, and especially for manufacturing, regarding the years of 2019 and 2020. The reason was incorrect data processing in calculating the results by economic sector for reference year 2019 within the scope of this year’s summer calculations. The total gross domestic product is not affected by the corrections.
2020 | 2021 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | |
1 1Only seasonally adjusted. 2 2 Including acquisitions less disposals of valuables and the statistical difference between production and expenditure approach. | |||||
Price-adjusted, change on the previous quarter in % | |||||
Final consumption expenditure | 8.3 | -1.7 | -4.0 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
Household final consumption expenditure | 11.5 | -2.7 | -5.3 | 3.8 | 6.2 |
Government final consumption expenditure | 1.5 | 0.8 | -1.0 | 4.6 | -2.2 |
Gross fixed capital formation | 4.6 | 2.4 | -0.6 | 1.2 | -2.2 |
Grossfixedcapitalformationinconstruction | -0.9 | 2.9 | 0.1 | 1.8 | -2.3 |
Grossfixedcapitalformationinmachineryandequipment | 16.7 | 1.9 | -0.3 | 0.4 | -3.7 |
Other fixed assets | 2.8 | 1.7 | -2.7 | 1.0 | 0.9 |
Domesticuses | 5.6 | -0.3 | -1.0 | 2.8 | 2.0 |
Exports | 17.5 | 4.6 | 1.3 | 0.6 | -1.0 |
Imports | 9.3 | 2.7 | 4.1 | 2.2 | -0.6 |
Gross domestic product (GDP) | 9.0 | 0.7 | -1.9 | 2.0 | 1.7 |
memorandum item: | |||||
GDP per person in employment | 9.2 | 0.7 | -1.8 | 1.8 | 1.3 |
GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 1 | 1.7 | 2.3 | -0.8 | 0.2 | -1.4 |
Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP in % points | |||||
Final consumption expenditure | 6.2 | -1.2 | -2.9 | 2.9 | 2.5 |
Household final consumption expenditure | 5.8 | -1.4 | -2.6 | 1.8 | 3.0 |
Government final consumption expenditure | 0.4 | 0.2 | -0.2 | 1.0 | -0.5 |
Gross fixed capital formation(GFCF) | 1.0 | 0.5 | -0.1 | 0.3 | -0.5 |
GFCF in construction | -0.1 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | -0.3 |
GFCF in machinery and equipment | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
Other fixed assets | 0.1 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
Changes in inventories 2 | -1.8 | 0.5 | 2.1 | -0.5 | -0.1 |
Domesticuses | 5.5 | -0.2 | -0.9 | 2.6 | 1.9 |
Balance of exports and imports (net exports) | 3.6 | 1.0 | -0.9 | -0.6 | -0.2 |
2020 | 2021 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
year | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | |
At current prices EUR bn | ||||||
Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 24.762 | 6.082 | 5.712 | 6.215 | 7.269 | 7.287 |
Industry, excluding construction | 715.829 | 177.026 | 192.645 | 189.979 | 187.655 | 185.030 |
including: | ||||||
Manufacturing | 611.888 | 152.672 | 164.321 | 161.531 | 162.915 | 161.211 |
Construction | 177.643 | 44.737 | 53.202 | 37.388 | 47.324 | 50.279 |
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 479.546 | 126.501 | 124.999 | 113.544 | 127.730 | 136.233 |
Information and communication | 153.349 | 39.509 | 40.134 | 40.442 | 37.721 | 41.110 |
Financial and insurance activities | 121.815 | 30.559 | 30.566 | 30.253 | 30.356 | 30.610 |
Real estate activities | 336.743 | 86.390 | 84.518 | 87.250 | 85.066 | 87.840 |
Business services | 337.134 | 86.264 | 86.523 | 86.423 | 83.221 | 94.161 |
Public services, education, health | 592.478 | 150.124 | 156.706 | 150.220 | 147.028 | 158.100 |
Other services | 111.023 | 30.321 | 26.799 | 27.504 | 26.580 | 31.815 |
Gross value added, total | 3,050.322 | 777.513 | 801.804 | 769.218 | 779.950 | 822.465 |
Price-adjusted, change on the same quarter of the preceding year in % | ||||||
Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.4 | -2.3 | -1.4 | -2.3 |
Industry, excluding construction | -9.3 | -9.5 | -1.4 | -2.1 | 19.9 | 1.9 |
including: | ||||||
Manufacturing | -10.0 | -10.5 | -1.4 | -2.0 | 22.1 | 2.6 |
Construction | 3.8 | -1.8 | 9.0 | -4.5 | 3.1 | 3.5 |
Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | -5.2 | -2.7 | -2.9 | -7.7 | 12.4 | 2.8 |
Information and communication | -1.0 | -1.1 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 6.6 | 2.6 |
Financial and insurance activities | 0.5 | 1.3 | -0.4 | -0.8 | -0.5 | 0.9 |
Real estate activities | -0.4 | 0.2 | -0.4 | 0.0 | 1.8 | 0.3 |
Business services | -7.4 | -8.2 | -6.9 | -6.7 | 9.8 | 6.1 |
Public services, education, health | -3.2 | 0.0 | -3.8 | -3.2 | 10.3 | 2.9 |
Other services | -10.5 | -3.9 | -16.0 | -10.5 | 8.1 | 1.8 |
Gross value added, total | -4.9 | -3.9 | -2.4 | -3.8 | 10.5 | 2.6 |
2020 | 2021 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
year | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | |
At current prices EUR bn | ||||||
Gross national income | 3,461.285 | 875.875 | 911.128 | 875.500 | 877.095 | 942.615 |
Net national income (factor costs) | 2,528.233 | 642.809 | 679.658 | 644.316 | 638.253 | 686.633 |
Compensation of employees | 1,852.105 | 456.546 | 509.068 | 445.246 | 463.051 | 476.611 |
Property and entrepreneurial income | 676.128 | 186.263 | 170.590 | 199.070 | 175.202 | 210.022 |
Gross wages and salaries of employees | 1,514.057 | 374.109 | 417.914 | 361.973 | 377.075 | 391.320 |
Net wages and salaries of employees | 1,021.338 | 258.096 | 282.055 | 245.050 | 250.836 | 270.066 |
memorandum item: | ||||||
Disposable income of households | 1,975.220 | 493.436 | 498.777 | 502.583 | 495.062 | 506.830 |
Savings ratio (in %) | 16.1 | 13.1 | 15.3 | 22.0 | 16.3 | 10.7 |
Price-adjusted, change on the same quarter of the preceding year in % | ||||||
Gross national income | -3.5 | -3.4 | -1.7 | -1.3 | 11.5 | 7.6 |
Net national income (factor costs) | -3.1 | -2.8 | -0.3 | 0.3 | 13.3 | 6.8 |
Compensation of employees | -0.2 | -0.7 | 0.4 | -0.4 | 5.4 | 4.4 |
Property and entrepreneurial income | -10.2 | -7.4 | -2.2 | 1.9 | 41.5 | 12.8 |
Gross wages and salaries of employees | -0.7 | -1.2 | 0.1 | -1.1 | 6.0 | 4.6 |
Net wages and salaries of employees | -0.1 | -0.6 | 1.1 | -0.5 | 6.8 | 4.6 |
memorandum item: | ||||||
Disposable income of households | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | -0.7 | 3.8 | 2.7 |
Visualised national accounts
The gross domestic product also forms part of the Crisis Monitor (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), by means of which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the corona crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The Crisis Monitor complements the „Corona statistics“ webpage (www.destatis.de/corona), which provides statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Visualised updated results are also available in our interactive national accounts dashboard (only in german).
More information
More detailed results have been published in Fachserie 18 “National Accounts“, Series 1.2 “Quarterly results“ and Series 1.3„Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using X13“. The above and other publications are provided at www.destatis.de --> Themes --> Economy --> National accounts, domestic product --> Publications.
A long time series containing quarterly results of the gross domestic product since the first quarter of 1970 is available at www.destatis.de --> Topics: National accounts --> Domestic product --> Tables.
The above and other current national accounting results are available in the GENESIS-Online database (81000)
contactfor further info
National accounts info team
Phone: +49 611 75 2626
Contact Form
- National accounts, domestic product