German economy slows in Q3 despite stronger investment

November 22, 2013 01:59 pm | Updated December 04, 2021 11:14 pm IST - Berlin

The German economy slowed in the third quarter despite a strong pickup in both corporate investment and government spending, data released on Friday showed.

Europe’s biggest economy expanded by a modest 0.3 per cent quarter on quarter during the three months to the end of September, down from 0.7 per cent in the second quarter, the statistics office said, confirming data it released last week.

“Positive contributions in the third quarter were made exclusively by domestic demand,” it said.

In particular, this included a quarter-on-quarter 0.5-per-cent gain in investment in machinery and equipment.

Building sector investment jumped by 2.4 per cent in the quarter.

Government spending was up 0.5 per cent, while consumer spending edged higher by 0.1 per cent.

However, trade acted as a drag on the nation’s third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) with imports growing by 0.8 per cent and at a much faster pace than exports, which increased by just 0.1 per cent.

As a result, trade made a negative contribution to GDP of minus 0.4 percentage points, the statistics office said.

Year-on-year GDP grew by 1.1 per cent in the third quarter compared with 0.9 per cent in the three months ended June.

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