Gross domestic product: detailed gross domestic product results for the 2nd quarter of 2021 (2024)

Loading...

Domestic demand substantially up

As the restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic were more and more reduced, final consumption expenditure in the second quarter of 2021 was markedly up compared with the beginning of the year. Household final consumption expenditure increased by 3.2% on the first quarter (price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted), while government final consumption expenditure rose by 1.8%. Gross fixed capital formation, too, was slightly higher than at the beginning of the year. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment increased by 0.3%, after adjustment for price, seasonal and calendar variations, as did gross fixed capital formation in construction.

Foreign trade, too, was up on the first quarter of 2021. In the second quarter of 2021, exports of goods and services were up 0.5% compared with the first quarter of 2021, after price, seasonal and calendar adjustment. There was a larger quarter-on-quarter increase in imports (+2.1%).

 
Gross value added up in service sector and down in industry

In the second quarter of 2021, the price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted gross value added increased by 1.0%. However, individual economic sectors showed diverging trends. Gross value added was up, in part markedly, in public services, education, health (+3.8%) and in trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+1.1%), whereas it rose just slightly in construction (+0.1%) as compared to the first quarter of 2021. In contrast, manufacturing recorded a 1.3% decrease of gross value added in the second quarter of 2021.

Marked increase of gross domestic product, year on year

GDP in the second quarter of 2021 was up a price-adjusted 9.8% and a price- and calendar adjusted 9.4% compared with the second quarter of 2020, when the economic performance had been sharply down as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

Domestic and foreign demand up on a year earlier

Domestic demand grew markedly also year on year. Household final consumption expenditure rose by a price-adjusted 6.0% in the second quarter of 2021, government final consumption expenditure by 3.7%. Gross fixed capital formation in machinery and equipment was markedly up in the second quarter of 2021 (+20.4%), following the massive slump in the same quarter of the previous year. Gross fixed capital formation in construction, too, grew 2.9% on the second quarter of 2020.

Gross value added up in almost all economic sectors compared with a year earlier

After two-digit decreases in price-adjusted gross value added had been recorded for many economic sectors in summer 2020, economic performance in the second quarter of 2021 was markedly up on the second quarter of 2020 in almost all economic sectors. The largest increase was observed in manufacturing (+21.9%), followed by trade, transport, accommodation and food services (+11.0%) and public services, education, health (+10.2%). Substantial increases in gross value added on the second quarter of 2020 were also recorded for business services (+9.6%) and other services (+8.1%), which include entertainment and recreation. Construction recorded a relatively small increase in gross value added (+0.5%).

Year-on-year decline in employment coming to a halt

The economic performance in the second quarter of 2021 was achieved by roughly 44.7 million persons in employment whose place of employment was in Germany. This means that the number of persons in employment was nearly unchanged on the second quarter of 2020 (+4,000; 0.0%; see press release 389/21 of 17 August 2021). The year-on-year decline in employment did not continue whereas in the first quarter of 2021, the year-on-year rate of change had still been -1.5%. This development is mainly due to the sharp fall in employment figures in the second quarter of 2020 caused by the coronavirus crisis.

The average number of hours worked per person in employment rose considerably by 6.8% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the same quarter a year earlier according to first provisional results of the Institute for Employment Research of the Federal Employment Agency. The labour volume of the overall economy, which is the total number of hours worked by all persons in employment, rose also by 6.8% in the same period. This development, too, was influenced by the sharp fall observed in the same month of the previous year. In addition, this shows that short-time work was less often applied, which is not reflected in the number of persons in employment, but in the number of hours worked.

Savings ratio slightly down on a year earlier

At current prices, the GDP rose by 11.0% and the gross national income by 10.9% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with a year earlier. The increase in net national income at factor costs (+12.8%) was even larger. According to first provisional calculations, the compensation of employees was up by just 4.9% year on year, while property and entrepreneurial income rose sharply by 40.6%. However, in the same quarter of the previous year, the decrease in compensation of employees (-3.2%) had been much smaller than that of property and entrepreneurial income (-27.2%). Gross wages and salaries of employees in the second quarter of 2021 were by 5.4% higher than in the second quarter of 2020, net wages and salaries by 6.5%. When calculated as an average per employee, wages and salaries increased slightly less markedly (+5.2% in gross terms, +6.2% in net terms). The disposable income of households was by 3.4% higher than a year earlier. At the same time, household final consumption expenditure at current prices increased by 8.0%, following four quarters of year-on-year decreases in a row. As the increase in household final consumption expenditure was larger than that of disposable income, households now saved less than in the same quarter of the previous year. According to provisional calculations, a savings ratio of 16.3% was calculated for the second quarter of 2021, following 22.0% in the previous quarter and 19.8% in the second quarter of 2020. However, the saving propensity was still at a relatively high level.

International and European comparison

In the second quarter of 2021, many Member States of the European Union (EU) recorded a stronger economic growth on the previous quarter than Germany. The price-, seasonally and calendar-adjusted GDP was up by 2.8% in Spain and 2.7% in Italy on the first quarter of 2021, thus exceeding the increase in Germany by more than one percentage point (+1.6%). France, in contrast, recorded a more moderate rise of 0.9%. According to provisional calculations, the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) reported a GDP rise of 2.0% on the previous quarter for the EU as a whole. The economic performance of the United States (+1.6%, converted figure) increased as much as the German GDP in the second quarter of 2021.

The GDP growth rates of most EU Member States are higher than Germany’s GDP growth rate also in a year-on-year comparison. Spain (+19.8%), France (+18.7%) and Italy (+17.3%) recorded a markedly stronger economic growth on the second quarter of 2020 than Germany (+9.4%) after price, seasonally and calendar adjustment. Among others, this is due to the fact that the economic performance of these countries had worsened much more in the course of the first coronavirus wave one year ago. For the whole EU, Eurostat released a preliminary result of +13.2% on the same quarter of the previous year. The United States reported a 12.2% increase of GDP (converted figure).

Revision of previous results and methodological notes

The greater uncertainties caused by the coronavirus pandemic may lead to larger revisions than usual. This applies in particular to the seasonally and calendar adjusted quarterly data. In addition to the calculations for the last four years, the models and parameters of seasonal and calendar adjustment were adjusted as part of the summer calculations, which is done at regular intervals.

Compared with the first release of 30 July 2021, minor changes of the results published so far have become necessary only in the first and second quarters of 2021 for the gross domestic product. Detailed data on the recalculations are shown in the table “Comparison between old and new figures” in this press release.

Visualised national accounts

The gross domestic product also forms part of the Crisis Monitor (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), by means of 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 (www.destatis.de/corona), which provides statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. Visualised updated results are also available in our interactive national accounts dashboard (only in german).