Figures released this morning show that a small 0.2% expansion of the German economy in the third quarter of this year was mainly due to strong export growth, as domestic demand remained chronically weak.
In a detailed breakdown of Q3 gross domestic product data, originally released last week, the Federal Statistics Office calculated that investment contracted by 3.2% in the period from July to September from the preceding three months and household consumption fell by 0.6%.
By contrast, public sector spending rose by 0.4% in the third quarter from the second. Overall, domestic demand declined by 1.6% in the July-September period.
As already indicated last week, German GDP grew by 0.2% on a quarterly basis in third quarter, pulling the euro zone's biggest economy out of the shallow recession it had slipped into at the end of last year.
Exports were the main driving force behind the modest growth, rising by 3.2%, while imports fell by 1.9%.
