'Germany's Q3 GDP Up 1.8% Still Below Pre-Crisis Levels'

Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter of 2021 rose by 1.8 per cent compared with the previous quarter, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said.

"The recovery of the German economy thus continued in summer," Destatis noted, adding that growth was "mainly attributable to higher household final consumption expenditure". However, GDP was still 1.1 per cent below that recorded in the final quarter of 2019, media reported.

As savings have accumulated since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and consumption options were restricted for a long time, "many households are likely to be quite free-spending," Nils Jannsen, senior researcher at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), said.

On Wednesday, the German government lowered its GDP growth forecast and now expects the country's economy to only grow by 2.6 per cent this year, instead of 3.5 per cent as previously projected.

Nonetheless, Germany is "back on a growth path after the Covid-19 crisis," German Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier said, predicting that in 2022 the economy will gain "significant momentum".