Press release No. 070 of 24 February 2023
Gross domestic product (GDP), 4th quarter of 2022
-0.4% on the previous quarter (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+0.3% on the same quarter a year earlier (price adjusted)
+0.9% on the same quarter a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – The gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.4% in the fourth quarter of 2022 on the third quarter of 2022 after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations. The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports that the GDP was by 0.2 percentage points lower than communicated in the first release of 30 January 2023.The German economy markedly lost momentum at the end of the year. The gross domestic product grew in the first three quarters of last year (+0.8%, +0.1% and +0.5%) despite difficult framework conditions in the global economy. For the whole year of 2022, most recent calculations confirmed a year-on-year growth of 1.8% (calendar adjusted: +1.9%).
| 2021 | 2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr |
| -1.5 | 1.9 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | -0.4 |
Household final consumption expenditure and capital formation slowed economic performance
The continuing large price increases and the ongoing energy crisis had a negative effect on the German economy towards the end of the year. This was reflected especially in household final consumption expenditure, which was down 1.0% in the fourth quarter of 2022 (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted). After reliefs such as the fuel discount and the 9-euro ticket ended, consumers spent less on consumption in the fourth quarter of 2022 than in the third quarter of 2022. Gross fixed capital formation, too, was down on the previous quarter. Gross fixed capital formation in construction decreased after elimination of price, seasonal and calendar effects (-2.9%), as was the case in the previous two quarters. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment fell markedly, too (-3.6%), at the end of the year. Government final consumption expenditure was slightly up on the previous quarter (+0.6%).
In the fourth quarter of 2022, exports of goods and services were down a total 1.0% on the third quarter of 2022, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. There was a slightly larger decrease in imports (-1.3%). This was due not only to the difficult international situation, including ongoing supply chain disruptions, but also to the high energy prices, which led to lower trade with chemical products, for example.
Gross value added down in most service branches
In the fourth quarter of 2022, the price, seasonally and calendar adjusted gross value added decreased by 1.4% on the previous quarter. Almost all economic sectors saw a decrease. Slight increases were recorded only in information and communication, real estate activities and business services. Against the background of the high inflation rates, gross value added was markedly lower than in the previous quarter in other services (-6.8%) and trade, transport, accommodation and food services (-2.9%). Gross value added in manufacturing was down a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted 0.6% in the fourth quarter of 2022 due to sharp falls in output in energy-intensive branches such as manufacture of chemicals and manufacture of basic metals. Economic performance in construction fell for the third consecutive quarter (-2.4%).
Gross domestic product increased year on year
GDP in the fourth quarter of 2022 was up a price adjusted 0.3% compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. After price and calendar adjustment, the increase was larger (0.9%) as there were fewer working days than a year earlier.
| 2021 | 2022 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr |
| -2.3 | 10.6 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 3.9 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 |
Capital formation markedly up year on year, household and government final consumption expenditure growing moderately
Domestic uses continued to grow year on year despite large price increases and global insecurity. This applies especially to gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment, which rose a price adjusted 3.1% from the fourth quarter of 2021. A major reason was the sharp increase in commercial new registrations of passenger cars at the end of the year. As regards gross fixed capital formation in construction, however, the continuing high construction prices and the increase in interest rates in construction led to a growing number of building project cancellations. The cold weather in December 2022 had a negative effect, too. Gross fixed capital formation in construction recorded a marked price adjusted 4.9% decrease year on year. Consequently, total gross fixed capital formation, too, was slightly down on the previous year (-1.2%).
Household final consumption expenditure grew moderately by a price adjusted 0.4%. The negative impact of the large price increases was overlapped by catch-up effects of the Covid crisis, which were reflected especially by higher expenditure on travels and food and beverage service activities at the end of the year. Government final consumption expenditure, too, rose moderately by a price adjusted 0.5%. General government spent markedly more to accommodate, feed and teach all the people from Ukraine and other countries seeking protection. At the same time, however, expenditure to fight the Covid pandemic went down.
Foreign trade increased slightly on a year earlier although especially trade in goods markedly lost momentum. Total exports of goods and services increased a price adjusted 0.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022 from the fourth quarter of 2021, with exports of goods falling slightly. Total imports grew a price adjusted 1.9% in the same period, the main reason being sharp increases in tourism expenditure of residents abroad and in imports of other services, whereas imports of goods rose just slightly.
Service branches improved their economic performance year on year, other economic sectors recorded decrease
Overall, the price adjusted gross value added in the fourth quarter of 2022 was up 0.4% on the fourth quarter of 2021.
It was only the service branches that contributed to the increase. Large year-on-year increases were recorded by other services (+5.9%), public services, education, health (+3.7%) and information and communication (+3.7%). The sector of trade, transport, accommodation and food services could not continue its catch-up process at the end of the year and recorded a 0.7% decline from the same quarter a year earlier. This was mainly due to the sharp price increases that had a negative effect especially on trade. Accommodation and food services grew markedly after they had suffered considerably from the Covid pandemic related restrictions in the previous year.
The downward trend in construction continued; price adjusted gross value added was down 6.2% year on year. Factors contributing to that development were not only material and skilled labour shortage but also the cold weather in December. Manufacturing, too, saw a 1.1% decrease. This was due mainly to production losses in industrial branches that suffered particularly from the sharp energy price rises.
Employment at record high again
The economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2022 was achieved by roughly 45.9 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. That was an increase of 1.1%, or 492,000, compared with a year earlier. Thus a new record high was reached (see press release no. 063/23 of 16 February 2023).
The average number of hours worked per person in employment was down by 1.5% compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. Apart from calendar effects, this was due to a higher number of staff on sick leave. The labour volume of the overall economy, which is the total number of hours worked by all persons in employment, declined by 0.5%. 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) rose by 0.8% on the same quarter of the previous year. Labour productivity per person in employment was 0.7% lower year on year.
Nominal income and consumption up markedly, savings ratio down year on year
At current prices, the GDP rose by 6.5% and the gross national income by 6.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared with a year earlier. Net national income at factor costs increased by 3.5% on the fourth quarter of 2021. The compensation of employees was up 6.3%, whereas property and entrepreneurial income was down 3.9%, according to provisional calculations. Average gross wages and salaries recorded a 5.6% increase in the fourth quarter of 2022 from the same period a year earlier. This growth is mainly due to the fall in short-time work, in addition to the collectively agreed wage increases. Total gross wages and salaries rose 6.8% on a year earlier as the number of employees also went up once more. The increase of net wages and salaries (+7.5%) was slightly larger than that of gross wages and salaries, one of the reasons being the downward effect of the Tax Relief Act 2022. Overall, the extremely high inflation led to noticeable losses in real earnings for employees, on average, also at the end of 2022.
The savings ratio (10.8%) was below the previous year’s value (11.5%) in the fourth quarter of 2022. The sharp increases in energy and food prices, in particular, contributed to the 9.3% rise in household final consumption expenditure at current prices year on year. The disposable income rose slightly less (+8.7%) on the previous year. The increase would have been lower had it not been for the energy lump-sum payment of the government.
Germany's economy compared internationally
The economies of the other large Member States of the European Union (EU) and of the EU as a whole also slowed in the fourth quarter of 2022. Spain and France still recorded slight increases of 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively, from the third quarter of 2022, while the price, seasonally and calendar adjusted GDP of Italy dropped by 0.1%. GDP stagnated in the EU as a whole compared with the third quarter of 2022, according to provisional calculations of the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat). Economic performance in the United States (USA) was up 0.7% on the previous quarter, more than in most European countries. In terms of price, seasonally and calendar adjusted GDP growth rates, Germany is middle-ranking internationally in a year-on-year comparison.
| USA | Euroarea | EU27 | France | Italy | Spain | Germany | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Previous quarter: change on the third quarter of 2022; Same quarter of the previous year: change on the fourth quarter of 2021. Source: Eurostat and own calculations | |||||||
| Previous quarter | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.1 | -0.1 | 0.2 | -0.4 |
| Same quarter of the previous year | 1.0 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 0.5 | 1.7 | 2.7 | 0.9 |
A detailed comparison of the EU Member States’ growth rates is available on our web page "Europe in figures".
Revision of previous results and methodological notes:
In addition to calculating the detailed results, the Federal Statistical Office also revised the figures for all four quarters and the year 2022. Together with the statistical information that became available after the first release of 30 January 2023, this resulted in a downward revision of the gross domestic product change rate by 0.2 percentage points for the fourth quarter of 2022.
As the difficult framework conditions persist, the current results are still subject to larger uncertainties than usual. This applies in particular to the seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data.
More information:
More detailed results are contained in Fachserie 18 “National Accounts“, Series 1.2 “Quarterly Results“ and Series 1.3 „Seasonally adjusted quarterly results using X13“. These and other publications are available on the „National accounts, domestic product“ webpage“ in the “Publications” section of the Federal Statistical Office’s website. Under “Tables” in the same section, a long time series with quarterly GDP results as from the first quarter of 1970 is also available.
The above and other current national accounting results are also provided in the GENESIS-Online database.
A detailed comparison of the EU Member States’ GDP growth rates is available on our webpage “Europe in figures”.
The GDP is shown also in the Dashboard Germany (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 economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor tool (only in german), which can be used for real-time monitoring of the economic development.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the related sanctions are having an impact on many parts of the economy and society. We have compiled data and information on the subject on a special webpage. (only in german)
| 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 | 3,601.75 | 5.8 | 105.87 | 2.6 | 105.61 | 2.6 | 2.6 | |
| 2022 | 3,867.05 | 7.4 | 107.76 | 1.8 | 107.57 | 1.9 | 1.9 | |
| 2021 | 1st qtr | 862.03 | -0.6 | 103.29 | -2.3 | 103.70 | -1.5 | -2.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 878.06 | 11.5 | 104.65 | 10.6 | 105.70 | 1.9 | 10.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 915.99 | 6.3 | 107.31 | 1.8 | 106.53 | 0.8 | 1.9 | |
| 4th qtr | 945.67 | 6.3 | 108.24 | 1.2 | 106.50 | 0.0 | 1.2 | |
2022 | 1st qtr | 938.99 | 8.9 | 107.28 | 3.9 | 107.35 | 0.8 | 3.6 |
| 2nd qtr | 948.58 | 8.0 | 106.46 | 1.7 | 107.46 | 0.1 | 1.6 | |
| 3rd qtr | 972.17 | 6.1 | 108.68 | 1.3 | 107.97 | 0.5 | 1.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 1007.31 | 6.5 | 108.60 | 0.3 | 107.50 | -0.4 | 0.9 | |
| 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | 7.1 | 4.8 | 1.5 | 0.5 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | 8.5 | 7.0 | 2.1 | 0.4 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | 4.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | 0.5 |
| Gross capital formation | -1.1 | 0.2 | 7.2 | 2.9 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | 2.3 | -1.3 | 2.0 | -1.2 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | 3.4 | -3.4 | -1.7 | -4.9 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 0.7 | 0.7 | 8.9 | 3.1 |
| Other fixed assets | 1.7 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 2.5 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | -0.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| Domestic uses | 5.0 | 3.6 | 2.9 | 1.0 |
| Exports | 3.6 | 2.4 | 5.1 | 0.5 |
| Imports | 6.3 | 6.9 | 9.2 | 1.9 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports) 2 | -0.9 | -1.7 | -1.5 | -0.6 |
| Gross domestic product | 3.9 | 1.7 | 1.3 | 0.3 |
| memorandum item: | ||||
| GDP per person in employment | 2.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | -0.7 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment | 0.7 | 1.1 | -0.8 | 0.8 |
| Seasonally and calendar- adjusted figures change on the previous quarter | ||||
| Final consumption expenditure | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.1 | -0.5 |
| Household final consumption expenditure | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.7 | -1.0 |
| Government final consumption expenditure | 0.6 | 0.5 | -1.2 | 0.6 |
| Gross capital formation | 1.4 | 1.6 | 1.8 | -0.8 |
| Gross fixed capital formation | 2.3 | -1.2 | 1.3 | -2.5 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in construction | 3.5 | -3.2 | -0.9 | -2.9 |
| Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment | 1.8 | 1.1 | 5.4 | -3.6 |
| Other fixed assets | -0.1 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.7 |
| Changes in inventories 1 2 | -0.2 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| Domestic uses | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | -0.6 |
| Exports | -0.3 | 0.7 | 1.9 | -1.0 |
| Imports | -0.5 | 2.3 | 2.1 | -1.3 |
| Balance of exports and imports (net exports)2 | 0.1 | -0.7 | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| Gross domestic product (GDP) | 0.8 | 0.1 | 0.5 | -0.4 |
| memorandum item: | ||||
| GDP per person in employment | 0.4 | -0.2 | 0.4 | -0.7 |
| GDP per hour worked by persons in employment 3 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.0 |
| 2022 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st qtr | 2nd qtr | 3rd qtr | 4th qtr | |
| qtr = quarter | ||||
| Unadjusted figures Change on the previous year | ||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -5.4 | -4.5 | -4.5 | -4.0 |
| Industry, excluding construction | 1.1 | -0.1 | 0.9 | -1.9 |
| including: | ||||
| Manufacturing | 0.9 | -0.2 | 1.3 | -1.1 |
| Construction | 4.5 | -3.4 | -4.6 | -6.2 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 9.1 | 5.8 | 2.4 | -0.7 |
| Information and communication | 3.4 | 2.9 | 4.0 | 3.7 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 2.3 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 1.8 |
| Real estate activities | 1.6 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
| Business services | 6.5 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.1 |
| Public services, education, health | 2.4 | 0.8 | 2.8 | 3.7 |
| Other services | 8.5 | 8.3 | 2.3 | 5.9 |
| Gross value added, total | 3.6 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 0.4 |
| Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures change on the previous year | ||||
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | -6.4 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
| Industry, excluding construction | -0.1 | -0.2 | 0.6 | -1.1 |
| including: | ||||
| Manufacturing | 0.1 | -0.2 | 1.0 | -0.6 |
| Construction | 2.5 | -3.5 | -2.2 | -2.4 |
| Trade, transport, accommodation and food services | 1.8 | -1.4 | 2.9 | -2.9 |
| Information and communication | 1.3 | 0.5 | 1.4 | 0.9 |
| Financial and insurance activities | 1.7 | 0.3 | 1.2 | -1.0 |
| Real estate activities | 0.7 | 0.3 | -0.3 | 0.4 |
| Business services | 1.8 | -0.1 | -0.3 | 0.1 |
| Public services, education, health | 2.8 | -1.5 | 4.4 | -1.7 |
| Other services | 6.2 | 1.1 | 6.2 | -6.8 |
| Gross value added, total | 1.5 | -0.6 | 1.6 | -1.4 |
