Confirming its estimates published at the end of July, the agency announced that GDP – adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects – “did not fall further” in the April-June period. “After a slight downturn in the previous two quarters, which represented a technical recession, the German economy has stabilized in the spring,” said Ruth Brand, President of Destatis.
After two quarters of decline, consumption rose slightly by 0.1 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023. Household consumption stagnated, and government consumption spending rose 0.1 percent. The performance of the manufacturing sector increased by 0.1 percent, while the construction sector increased by 0.2 percent, while exports decreased by 1.1 percent and imports stagnated compared to the first quarter. Compared to a year earlier, German GDP decreased by 0.2%, according to calculations made by filtering out calendar effects, the announcement said.
In terms of the quarterly change in economic performance, Germany is considered average compared to the European Union, because the European Union economy as a whole witnessed a recession in the second quarter, but at the same time it was lagging significantly behind the French economy, which grew by 0.5 percent, and the Spanish economy, which expanded. by 0.4 percent. Compared to the previous year, the difference is even greater, because while the German economy fell, the EU economy as a whole grew by 0.5 percent in the April-June period compared to the spring of 2022.
Business newspaper Handelsblatt highlighted in its compilation of the Destatis report: The data shows that although the largest economy in the European Union has overcome a technical recession, it has not grown for three quarters, which may further reinforce fears that after the turn of the millennium Germany will become Once again the “sick man of Europe”.
