Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) continued to grow in the fourth quarter of 2016, thanks to high consumer sentiment and a boom in the construction sector, official data showed on Tuesday.
German GDP in the last quarter of 2016 rose by 0.4 percent from the previous quarter after accounting for price, seasonal and calender adjustments, the federal statistical office Destatis reported.
"The economic situation in Germany in 2016 thus was characterised by solid and steady growth," Destatis commented.
GDP rose in the first three quarters by 0.7 percent, 0.5 percent, and 0.1 percent, respectively. For the entire year of 2016, Destatis said the consecutive rises in the last four quarters resulted in an increase of 1.9 percent.
Destatis attributed the GDP growth to an increase in domestic demand, mentioning that general government final consumption expenditure was up significantly and that household final consumption expenditure rose slightly again.
However, the provisional calculations showed that the development of foreign trade had a downward effect on the growth, because the price-adjusted quarter-on-quarter increase in imports was much larger than that of exports.
"The economic performance in the fourth quarter of 2016 was achieved by 43.7 million persons in employment, which was an increase of 267,000 year-on-year," Destatis said in the report.
On the same day, Destatis confirmed its provisional results of the inflation rate in January, which was released on Jan. 30, 2017, saying it had increased to the highest level since July 2013.
The inflation rate in Germany, as measured by consumer price index (CPI), saw a year-on-year increase of 1.9 percent in January 2017, the same level as July 2013, according to Destatis.
Compared with December 2016, the CPI in January 2017 fell by 0.6 percent due to seasonal factors. The growth of the inflation rate in the first month of the year was mainly driven by the development of energy prices, which were markedly up by 5.9 percent in January 2017 compared with a year earlier. Meanwhile, food prices were also markedly higher by 3.2 percent year-on-year.
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