Press release No. 038 of 30 January 2024
Gross domestic product (GDP), 4th quarter of 2023
-0.3% on the previous quarter (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-0.4% on the same quarter a year earlier (price adjusted)
-0.2% on the same quarter a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – The gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared with the third quarter of 2023 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. After the German economy more or less stagnated in the first three quarters, economic performance decreased in the fourth quarter of 2023. Compared with the previous quarter, there was a marked decline, in particular, in gross fixed capital formation in construction and in machinery and equipment after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that price adjusted GDP fell by 0.3% in 2023. After price and calendar adjustment, the decline amounted to 0.1%. The Federal Statistical Office therefore confirms its first estimate for GDP, which was released on 15 January 2024 (see Press release no. 19/2024).
Gross domestic product down year on year
GDP in the fourth quarter of 2023 was down a price adjusted 0.4% compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. After price and calendar adjustment, the decrease was smaller (-0.2%), as there was one working day less than in the same period a year earlier.
Revision of previous results
In addition to calculating data for the fourth quarter of 2023, as usual the Federal Statistical Office also reviewed the results published earlier and included new statistical information in the calculations for the remaining quarters of 2023. This resulted in absolute changes of 0.1 percentage points for the quarterly price adjusted GDP data published so far. Detailed recalculation data are shown in the table comparing old and new figures at the end of this press release.
Methodological notes:
The differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons of seasonally and calendar adjusted figures with those of the previous month or quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. Year-on-year comparisons enable long-term comparisons of levels and are hardly influenced by seasonal fluctuations. The results of month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons may differ considerably because of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. In addition, the current GDP results still are subject to greater uncertainties than usual. This applies in particular to the price, seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data.
| Unadjusted figures | Figures according to X13 price adjusted | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At current prices | Price adjusted, chain-linked | Seasonally and calendar adjusted | Calendar adjusted | |||||
| EUR billion | % 1 | 2015 = 100 | % 1 | 2015 = 100 | % 2 | % 1 3 | ||
| 1 Change on the previous year or on the same quarter of the previous year in % 2 Change on the previous year or on the previous quarter in %. 3 For full years, the calendar adjusted values are equal to the seasonally and calendar adjusted values (except for rounding discrepancies) qtr = quarter | ||||||||
| 2022 | 3,876.81 | 7.2 | 108.22 | 1.8 | 108.03 | 1.9 | 1.9 | |
| 2023 | 4,121.16 | 6.3 | 107.89 | -0.3 | 107.91 | -0.1 | -0.1 | |
2022 | 1st qtr | 943.34 | 9.1 | 108.03 | 4.3 | 108.05 | 1.0 | 4.0 |
| 2nd qtr | 950.28 | 7.7 | 106.73 | 1.6 | 107.91 | -0.1 | 1.5 | |
| 3rd qtr | 976.58 | 5.8 | 109.21 | 1.2 | 108.30 | 0.4 | 1.3 | |
| 4th qtr | 1,006.61 | 6.2 | 108.90 | 0.2 | 107.86 | -0.4 | 0.8 | |
2023 | 1st qtr | 1,011.33 | 7.2 | 108.36 | 0.3 | 107.97 | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| 2nd qtr | 1,008.07 | 6.1 | 106.30 | -0.4 | 108.00 | 0.0 | 0.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 1,034.72 | 6.0 | 108.44 | -0.7 | 107.99 | 0.0 | -0.3 | |
| 4th qtr | 1,067.04 | 6.0 | 108.45 | -0.4 | 107.68 | -0.3 | -0.2 | |
| New result | Previous result | Difference | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted figures | Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted figures | Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted figures | ||
1 Seasonally and calendar adjusted figures: change on the previous year qtr = quarter | |||||||
| Change, percent 1 | Percentage points | ||||||
| 2023 | -0.1 | -0.3 | -0.1 | -0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
2023 | 1st qtr | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.0 | -0.4 | 0.1 | -0.4 | -0.1 | 0.0 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.0 | -0.7 | -0.1 | -0.8 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| 4th qtr | -0.3 | -0.4 | x | x | x | x | |
Further information:
Detailed results for the fourth quarter of 2023 will be released by the Federal Statistical Office on 23 February 2024.
A long time series containing quarterly results on the gross domestic product since the first quarter of 1970 is available in the “Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen” (only in German) statistical report.
GDP data are also available on Dashboard Germany at (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in German).This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser Wirtschaft) (only in German) tool for real-time economic monitoring.
