Press release No. 066 of 23 February 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 4th quarter of 2023 compared with the 3rd quarter of 2023 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that this confirms the result published in the first release of 30 January 2024. "The German economy ended 2023 in negative territory. In the final quarter, declining investment had a dampening effect on economic activity, while consumption increased slightly," says Ruth Brand, President of the Federal Statistical Office. In the first three quarters, GDP largely stagnated amidst a still challenging global economic environment. For the whole year of 2023, the most recent calculations have confirmed the year-on-year decline in economic performance of 0.3% (calendar adjusted: -0.1%).
| 2022 | 2023 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr |
| 1.0 | -0.1 | 0.4 | -0.4 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
Capital formation slowed economic performance
Following its sharp decline in the winter half-year of 2022/2023, household final consumption expenditure recovered somewhat in the course of 2023. The rate of inflation dropped at the same time. In the 4th quarter of 2023, household final consumption expenditure rose slightly by 0.2% on the previous quarter, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. Increased demand for services made a positive contribution here. Government final consumption expenditure was also up slightly (+0.3%) on the previous quarter.
By contrast, capital formation was down considerably quarter on quarter. Fixed capital formation in construction was down 1.7% after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. This comes on the heels of the declines already registered in the two previous quarters. The decline in gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment at the end of the year was even more pronounced, at -3.5%.
In the 4th quarter of 2023, exports of goods and services were down 1.6% in total on the 3rd quarter of 2023, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. The decline in imports was somewhat larger, at -1.7%. Subdued foreign demand, ongoing geopolitical tensions and high energy prices were particularly reflected in the weaker trade in goods.
Gross value added down in most sectors
After adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations, gross value added in the 4th quarter of 2023 was down 0.4% on the previous quarter, following a stagnation in the two previous quarters. The biggest drops were registered in construction (-2.6%) and manufacturing (-1.4%). While the production of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers increased, a decline was recorded in many other sectors, such as the manufacture of machinery and equipment, the manufacture of electrical equipment, the manufacture of fabricated metal products, and the chemical industry. By contrast, gross value added in energy supply saw strong quarter-on-quarter growth. After adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations, gross value added declined by 0.9% both in the aggregated economic sector of trade, transport, accommodation and food services and in other services. These two sectors had recorded a growth in economic performance in the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2023. Business services and the public services, education and health sector both registered a slight increase in the 4th quarter of 2023.
Gross domestic product down year on year
GDP in the 4th quarter of 2023 was down a price adjusted 0.4% compared with the 4th quarter of 2022. After price and calendar adjustment, the decrease was smaller (-0.2%) as there was one working day less than a year earlier.
| 2022 | 2023 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr |
| 4.3 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | -0.4 | -0.7 | -0.4 |
Capital formation down significantly year on year, household final consumption continues to fall
In the 4th quarter of 2023, domestic uses on the whole were down a price adjusted 1.1% year on year. Gross fixed capital formation in construction, in particular, was down 2.2% on the 4th quarter of 2022. This was mainly due to the bad weather in November and December 2023. Price pressure in the construction industry continued to decrease, however. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment declined slightly, by 0.4%, compared with the same quarter a year earlier. One reason for this was the discontinuation of state assistance for commercial registrations of electric vehicles with effect from 1 September 2023.
Household final consumption expenditure fell by a price adjusted 0.6%, with persistently high prices continuing to make themselves felt. This particularly affected food and catering services in restaurants, cafés and the like: after adjustment for price variations, clearly less money was spent in these areas than in the previous year. After government final consumption expenditure experienced (at times considerable) quarter-on-quarter declines in the first three quarters of 2023, it stagnated in the 4th quarter of 2023 compared with the same quarter of 2022.
Foreign trade decreased significantly compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Exports declined by 4.0% because the export of goods declined significantly (-5.1%). This was due to declines in the "chemicals and chemical products", "pharmaceuticals and similar products" and "data processing equipment" sectors.
Imports on the whole declined even more than exports in the same period (-5.6% after price adjustment). In particular, the import of goods saw a very negative development (-8.9%), which was caused by declines especially with regard to metals, data processing equipment and electrical equipment. The imports of services, by contrast, registered significant growth of 5.2% thanks to a marked increase in business services.
Service branches improved their economic performance slightly year on year, manufacturing saw marked decline
Price adjusted gross value added decreased by a total of 0.3% in the 4th quarter of 2023 on the same quarter of 2022. Overall, the development of gross value added was very different in manufacturing and in the service sector. While the service branches as a whole recorded a slight increase, economic performance in manufacturing fell markedly (-2.2%). Within manufacturing, the decrease was mainly attributable to the drop in gross value added in the manufacture of fabricated metal products, electrical equipment and machinery.
In the service sector, almost all branches were able to expand their economic activities compared with the same quarter a year earlier. In addition to real estate activities (+1.3%), business services also saw an increase in economic performance (+0.5%) in the 4th quarter of 2023. While the other business services managed to improve their economic performance despite a decline in temporary employment agency activities, there was a slight drop in price adjusted gross value added for professional, scientific and technical services. Public services, education, health also recorded slight increases (+0.4%) compared with a year earlier. By contrast, the aggregated economic sector of trade, transport, accommodation and food services observed a decline of 1.1%. Here, the wholesale and retail trade contracted whereas the transport sector expanded.
Number of persons in employment at new record high again despite slowing growth
The economic performance in the 4th quarter of 2023 was achieved by roughly 46.2 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. This represented an increase of 216,000, or 0.5%, compared with a year earlier. A new record high was reached (see press release no. 059/24 of 16 February 2024).
The average number of hours worked per person in employment was down 0.5% compared with the 4th quarter of 2022. This is mainly due to the fact that there was one working day less than a year earlier. The labour volume of the overall economy, which is the total number of hours worked by all persons in employment, remained unchanged over the same period. This is shown by provisional calculations of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) of the Federal Employment Agency.
Overall labour productivity (price adjusted GDP per hour worked by persons in employment) fell by 0.4% on the same quarter of the previous year. Labour productivity per person in employment was even 0.9% lower than a year earlier.
Income grew more strongly than nominal consumption, savings ratio up on previous year
At current prices, both GDP and gross national income were 6.0% higher in the 4th quarter of 2023 than a year earlier. Net national income at factor costs was up 5.1% on the 4th quarter of 2022. According to provisional calculations, the compensation of employees rose by 6.0%, whereas the increase was less pronounced for property and entrepreneurial income (+2.5%). Average gross wages and salaries per employee went up by 5.7% in the 4th quarter of 2023 compared with the same period a year earlier. Net average earnings increased even more (+7.8%), which is mainly attributable to duty-free premiums paid to compensate for inflation. Total gross wages and salaries rose by 6.3% on a year earlier as the number of employees also increased once more.
Quarter on quarter, the rate of growth of household final consumption expenditure at current prices slowed steadily in the course of the year and stood at +3.8% in the 4th quarter of 2023. As the disposable income increased somewhat more (+4.4%) year on year, the savings ratio (10.9%) was higher than in the previous year (10.5%).
Germany's economy compared with other countries
The economies of the other large Member States of the European Union (EU) and of the EU as a whole also slowed in the 4th quarter of 2023. Spain and Italy still recorded slight increases of 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, from the 3rd quarter of 2023, while price, seasonally and calendar adjusted GDP stagnated in France and also in the Euro area as a whole (0.0%). Economic performance in the United States (USA) increased by 0.8% on the previous quarter and 3.1% on the 4th quarter of 2022, more than in most European countries. At -0.2%, the year-on-year development of economic performance in Germany is clearly below that of the EU as a whole (+0.3%), after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations.
| USA | Euroarea | EU27 | France | Italy | Spain | Germany | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous quarter: change on the third quarter of 2023; Same quarter of the previous year: change on the fourth quarter of 2022. Source: Eurostat and own calculations | |||||||
| Previous quarter | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.6 | -0.3 |
| Same quarter of the previous year | 3.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 2.0 | -0.2 |
A detailed comparison of the EU Member States’ growth rates is available on our web page "Europe in figures".
Revision of previous results
In addition to the detailed results provided for the third quarter of 2023, the Federal Statistical Office has also reviewed the results for all three quarters of 2023. Taking into account the statistical information that became available after the first release of 30 October 2023, this resulted only in slight revisions of the gross domestic product figures published previously. More detailed data on the recalculations are shown in the table “Comparison between old and new figures” in 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 previous 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 quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons may differ considerably because of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine. The current GDP results also still are subject to greater uncertainties than usual. This applies in particular to the price, seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data.
More information:
More detailed results are contained in tables 81000 of the GENESIS-Online database and our publications Fachserie 18 “National Accounts“, Series 1.2 “Quarterly Results“ and Series 1.3 “Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using X13“. A long time series containing quarterly results on the gross domestic product since the first quarter of 1970 is available in the “Volkswirtschaftliche Gesamtrechnungen“ statistical report (only in German).
GDP data are available also 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 tool (only in German) for real-time economic monitoring.
| 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 the same quarter of the preceding year in %. 2 Change on the previous year or quarter in %. 3 As for years the calendar adjusted values equal the seasonally and calendar adjusted values (except for differences due to rounding). qtr = quarter | ||||||||
| 2021 | 3,876.81 | 7.2 | 108.22 | 1.8 | 108.03 | 1.9 | 1.9 | |
| 2022 | 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 | |
| 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | |
| 1 Including acquisitions less disposals of valuables and the statistical difference between production and expenditure approach. 2 Contributions to growth of price-adjusted GDP, percentage points. 3 Only seasonally adjusted. qtr = quarter | ||||
| Unadjusted figures Change on the previous year | ||||
| Final consumption expenditure | -0.8 | -1.3 | -1.3 | -0.4 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | 0.0 | -0.6 | -1.6 | -0.6 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | -2.4 | -3.0 | -0.6 | 0.0 |
| Gross capital formation | 1.4 | 2.4 | -3.0 | -3.0 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | -0.2 | 0.1 | -0.7 | -1.7 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | -4.0 | -2.3 | -2.1 | -2.2 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 7.1 | 4.6 | 1.5 | -0.4 |
| Other fixed assets | -0.8 | -0.8 | -0.6 | -0.3 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | -0.7 | -0.4 |
| Domestic uses | -0.2 | -0.4 | -1.7 | -1.1 |
| Exports | 1.2 | -2.0 | -3.7 | -4.0 |
| Imports | 0.5 | -2.2 | -5.9 | -5.6 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports) 2 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 1.1 | 0.7 |
| Gross domestic product | 0.3 | -0.4 | -0.7 | -0.4 |
| memorandum item: | ||||
| GDP per person in employment | -0.7 | -1.2 | -1.4 | -0.9 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment | -0.6 | -1.2 | -0.6 | -0.4 |
| Seasonally and calendar- adjusted figures change on the previous quarter | ||||
| Final consumption expenditure | -0.8 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | -0.6 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | -1.4 | -0.2 | 1.1 | 0.3 |
| Gross capital formation | -1.1 | 1.9 | -2.3 | -1.9 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.1 | -1.9 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | 1.5 | -0.5 | -0.8 | -1.7 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 1.9 | 0.8 | 1.4 | -3.5 |
| Other fixed assets | -1.6 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.7 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | -0.5 | 0.5 | -0.6 | -0.1 |
| Domestic uses | -0.9 | 0.6 | -0.4 | -0.3 |
| Exports | -0.2 | -0.9 | -0.7 | -1.6 |
| Imports | -2.2 | 0.1 | -1.5 | -1.7 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports)2 | 1.0 | -0.5 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
| memorandum item: | ||||
| GDP per person in employment | -0.2 | -0.1 | 0.0 | -0.3 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 3 | -1.1 | -0.5 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| 2023 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | |
| qtr = quarter | ||||
| Unadjusted figures Change on the previous year | ||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 1.6 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.6 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 0.5 | -1.7 | -3.6 | -2.6 |
| including: | ||||
| Manufacturing | 2.3 | 0.4 | -1.5 | -2.2 |
| Construction | -1.8 | -0.9 | 0.8 | 0.8 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 0.3 | -1.6 | -1.5 | -1.1 |
| Information and communication | 2.8 | 3.3 | 2.4 | 2.0 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 2.0 | -0.5 | -1.2 | -1.8 |
| Real estate activities | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.5 | 1.3 |
| Business services | -0.1 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Public services, education, health | 2.8 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| Other services | 2.0 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 2.5 |
| Gross value added, total | 0.8 | -0.1 | -0.7 | -0.3 |
| Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures change on the previous year | ||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -1.3 | 1.7 | 0.1 | 0.9 |
| Industry, excluding construction | -0.2 | -0.4 | -1.4 | -0.2 |
| including: | ||||
| Manufacturing | 0.1 | 0.3 | -0.9 | -1.4 |
| Construction | 5.0 | -0.4 | -0.1 | -2.6 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | -0.7 | 0.1 | 0.9 | -0.9 |
| Information and communication | 0.0 | 1.9 | 0.9 | -0.6 |
| Financial and insurance activities | -2.2 | -1.0 | 0.9 | 0.8 |
| Real estate activities | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.6 | -0.6 |
| Business services | -0.1 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Public services, education, health | 1.0 | -0.6 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Other services | 2.6 | 0.3 | 1.0 | -0.9 |
| Gross value added, total | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | -0.4 |
