Despite the consequences of the Ukraine war, the German economy surprisingly stayed on course for growth in the spring. Between April and June, the gross domestic product (GDP) increased by 0.1 percent compared to the previous quarter, as the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Thursday and thus revised a flash estimate. Initially there was talk of stagnation in economic output. At the beginning of the year there was an increase of 0.8 percent.
“Despite the difficult global economic conditions, the German economy held its ground in the first two quarters of 2022,” said Destatis President Georg Thiel. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2019, i.e. the quarter before the start of the corona pandemic, it shows that GDP in Germany reached the pre-crisis level for the first time in the spring. According to the office, the economy was mainly supported in the spring by private and government consumer spending. And trade with foreign countries increased overall. Although significantly fewer goods were exported to Russia in the second quarter than at the beginning of the year under the impact of the war in Ukraine, companies reported stable exports overall: Despite the disrupted global supply chains, 0.3 percent more goods and services were exported than in the first Quarter. However, imports increased more than the previous quarter by 1.6 percent.
