Germany’s GDP grew by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared to the previous three months.
The largest economy in the European Union has been curbed by restrictions that were tightened again in October and December 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Household consumption fell sharply, but this effect was offset to some extent by growth in construction and exports, writes MTI.
Consequently, the German economy beat analysts’ expectations, which are likely to see a recession, in the last three months of the year compared to the previous quarter.
However, compared to the fourth quarter before the outbreak of the epidemic the previous year, GDP is still falling significantly, by 3.9 percent. Destatis quick report based on estimation according to.
The Statistics Office also confirmed its previous calculations, according to which the German economy contracted by 5% in 2020 compared to the previous year.
This biggest downturn is the worst phase of the global financial and economic crisis that unfolded at the end of the first decade of the century, since 2009, when the performance of the German economy fell by 5.7 percent year-on-year.
Growth is set to pick up this year, according to new forecasts by the federal government on Wednesday, but the momentum is set to halt the second wave of the pandemic through mid-February and the risks posed by new virus variants lag behind previous expectations. Last fall. Thus growth could be 3 percent this year instead of 4.4 percent, and the economy’s performance could reach pre-epidemic levels within a year, not in a year – early 2022 – but in mid-2022.