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The German economy grew by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June, its
fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years, official figures show.
"Such quarter-on-quarter growth has never been recorded before in reunified
Germany," the national statistics office, Destatis, said.
The main reason for the higher-than-expected growth was strong exports, helped
by a weaker euro.
The eurozone economy grew by 1% during the quarter.
This compares with growth of 0.2% in the first three months of the year, the
area's official statistics agency, Eurostat, said.
Analysis
BBC Europe business reporter Ben Shore
Ben Shore Europe Business Reporter, BBC News, Brussels
Not since the Berlin Wall divided the country has Germany seen growth of 2.2%
in a single three-month period.
The German statistics agency says the numbers can partly be explained by a
sustained period of export growth, as Germany's immense manufacturing sector
begins to recover the markets it lost in 2009.
But the most surprising element of the numbers is an apparent contribution from
the German consumer. They have traditionally been very cautious in their
spending habits, but appear in 2010 to have finally opened their wallets with
gusto.
France's figure of 0.6% growth in the period from April to June is also
significantly better than economists had expected, raising hopes that Europe
may be emerging from the gloom of the last three months, a period when many
contemplated the end of the euro currency as rioters took to the streets of
Athens.
The French economy grew by 0.6% in the second quarter, also up from 0.2%, while
the Spanish economy grew by 0.2%, compared with 0.1% in the previous three
months.
The pace of growth in the Italian economy remained the same, at 0.4%.
The eurozone quarterly GDP figures show that the economic recovery in Europe
gained pace between April and June. The UK has also reported
higher-than-expected growth of 1.1% for the period.
In the US, however, second quarter growth was 0.6%, down from 0.9% between
January and March, raising questions about the strength of the recovery in the
world's biggest economy.
'Rapid recovery'
Destatis also revised up the German growth figure for the first three months of
the year, to 0.5% from 0.2%.
As well as the "strong contribution" from exports, the office said household
and government spending also helped to boost growth in the second quarter.
"The German economy is recovering rapidly," Destatis said.
Analysts had expected strong growth of about 1% to 1.5%.
"The strong second quarter performance of the German economy is impressive but
not surprising," said Carsten Brzeski at ING Financial Markets.
"The German economy mainly benefited from two factors - a catching up in the
construction sector after the harsh winter and strong foreign demand for German
goods."
Despite the strong figures, economists do not expect the German economy to
continue growing at such a fast pace.
"Looking ahead, it is almost needless to say that the current growth momentum
is hardly sustainable in the coming months. With the one-off impact from the
construction sector and normalising of export growth, German growth will return
to more ordinary numbers," Mr Brzeski said.
The German Economy Minister, Rainer Bruederle, said the latest quarterly GDP
figures "make growth of well above 2% possible for 2010".