Enlarge image
Pedestrian zone in Heidelberg: At the moment, private consumption in particular is causing an upswing in Germany
Photo: Ralph Peters / imago images / Ralph Peters
The pleasure of consumers to buy after the corona lockdown helped the German economy to grow again in the spring.
The gross domestic product rose between April and June by 1.6 percent compared to the previous quarter, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday.
At the beginning of 2021, German economic output had shrunk by 2.0 percent.
The Office has thus revised its estimate upwards slightly from the end of July.
At that time it had reported an increase of 1.5 percent.
Private households in particular provided momentum.
They spent 3.2 percent more than last.
Foreign trade slowed the economy because exports, at 0.5 percent, grew more slowly than imports, at 2.1 percent.
80.9 billion euros government deficit
In contrast, government consumption climbed 1.8 percent - albeit at the expense of a considerable budget deficit.
In the first half of 2021, the federal, state, local and social security sectors together spent 80.9 billion euros more than they received.
The minus corresponds to 4.7 percent of the gross domestic product.
Since German unification in 1991, there has been a major minus in a first half of only 1995, when the fiduciary debts were taken over into the state budget.
This time the state's expenditure increased by 6.9 percent to 879.2 billion euros, mainly because of the aid it provided to overcome the crisis.
At the same time, income, for example from taxes, only increased by 3.1 percent to 798.3 billion euros.
Bundesbank expects further growth
For the full year 2021, the Bundesbank is even anticipating a deficit of more than five percent.
However, it expects a significant decline in 2022, as the economic recovery will then continue and corona-related expenses such as state bridging aid could end.
While many service providers are looking up after months of restrictions due to the pandemic, industrial companies could often do better despite good orders.
The supply bottlenecks and rising costs of important raw materials are a problem for many companies.
The Bundesbank assumes that the economy is likely to grow faster again in the current summer quarter than in spring.
It remains to be seen whether the economy will return to its pre-crisis level in summer or not until autumn.
The Bundesbank experts see the delta variant and the declining momentum in vaccination as risks for the economy, which could lead to stricter containment measures again.
che / Reuters
