Press release No. 287 of 30 July 2020
Gross domestic product (GDP), 2nd quarter of 2020
-10.1% on the previous quarter (price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted)
-11.7% on the same quarter a year earlier (price-adjusted)
-11.7% on the same quarter a year earlier (price- and calendar-adjusted)
WIESBADEN – The gross domestic product (GDP) fell a price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted 10.1% on the first quarter of 2020. This was the largest decline since the beginning of quarterly GDP calculations for Germany in 1970. It was much larger than during the financial market and economic crisis (-4.7% in first quarter of 2009). The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) also reports that in the second quarter of 2020 a massive slump was recorded for exports and imports of goods and services as well as for household final consumption expenditure and capital formation in machinery and equipment. General government, however, raised its final consumption expenditure during the crisis.
Massive slump in gross domestic product also on the same quarter of the previous year
The German economy slumped also in a year-on-year comparison. The GDP in the second quarter of 2020 was down a price-adjusted 11.7% (also calendar-adjusted) on a year earlier. Again, such large decreases had not been observed even during the financial market and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The largest decrease on the same quarter of the preceding year had been recorded in the second quarter of 2009 (-7.9%).
Methodological notes
Starting with the second quarter of 2020, the Federal Statistical Office releases the GDP for the first time 30 days after the end of a quarter, that is, about two weeks earlier than in the past. The earlier availability the results requires a higher degree of estimates in the results than was the case after 45 days. The Federal Statistical Office will continue to release detailed results after about 55 days. The detailed figures for the second quarter of 2020 will be released on 25 August 2020.
Especially in times of crisis such as the current corona pandemic, early and fact-based economic data are in high demand by users from politics, businesses, the society, the scientific community and the media. The greater uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic may lead to larger revisions than usual.
Revision of previous results
In addition to calculating first data for the second quarter of 2020, the Federal Statistical Office reviewed the results published earlier and included new statistical information in the calculations (as from 2015), as usual. This resulted in changes of up to 0.4 percentage points of the gross domestic product data published so far. Detailed data on the recalculations are shown in the table “Comparison between old and new figures” at the end of this press release.
More information
More information on the quality of the GDP flash estimate and on why the Federal Statistical Office starts publishing it just now during the coronavirus pandemic is given in our podcast (podcast only in German, transcript (shortened version) in English).
A long time series with quarterly results on the gross domestic product starting with the first quarter of 1970 is available here.
Crisis Monitor enables comparison between corona crisis and financial/economic crisis
The gross domestic product is also part of the "Crisis Monitor" (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), in which the Federal Statistical Office compares the development of major short-term indicators in the corona crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The Crisis Monitor complements the "Corona statistics" webpage, which has provided statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the corona pandemic since early April.
| New result | Previous result | Difference | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted
| Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted
| Figures adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects using X13 | Unadjusted
| ||
1: Seasonally and calendar-adjusted figures: change on previous quarter; qtr = quarter | |||||||
| Change, percent 1 | Percentage points | ||||||
| 2015 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.7 | -0.3 | -0.2 | |
| 2016 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.1 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2017 | 2.9 | 2.6 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| 2018 | 1.3 | 1.3 | 1.5 | 1.5 | -0.2 | -0.2 | |
| 2019 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2015 | 1st qtr | -0.5 | 1.0 | -0.2 | 1.3 | -0.3 | -0.3 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.7 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 1.8 | 0.1 | -0.3 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.4 | 1.5 | 0.5 | 1.8 | -0.1 | -0.3 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.5 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.1 | 0.1 | -0.2 | |
| 2016 | 1st qtr | 0.9 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.4 | 3.6 | 0.6 | 3.7 | -0.2 | -0.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.2 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 2017 | 1st qtr | 1.2 | 3.6 | 1.2 | 3.6 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.7 | 1.2 | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.1 | 0.2 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.9 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.2 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.8 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 0.1 | 0.2 | |
| 2018 | 1st qtr | -0.2 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 1.6 | -0.3 | -0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | 0.5 | 2.4 | 0.4 | 2.5 | 0.1 | -0.1 | |
| 3rd qtr | -0.3 | 0.7 | -0.1 | 1.1 | -0.2 | -0.4 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.1 | -0.4 | |
| 2019 | 1st qtr | 0.6 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | -0.5 | -0.3 | -0.2 | -0.1 | -0.3 | -0.2 | |
| 3rd qtr | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | |
| 4th qtr | 0.0 | 0.2 | -0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | |
| 2020 | 1st qtr | -2.0 | -1.8 | -2.2 | -1.9 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 2nd qtr | -10.1 | -11.7 | x | x | x | x | |
