As reported by Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the German economy has been gaining momentum, with price, season and calendar adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter this year increasing by 0.8 percent compared with the last quarter of 2013. Meanwhile, in the first quarter the country's price adjusted GDP increased by 2.5 percent year on year, which is the largest year-on-year increase in over two years. According to the most recent calculations, the German economy grew by 0.4 percent quarter on quarter in the last quarter of 2013.
In the first quarter of this year, German households and general government increased their final consumption expenditure, while capital formation and fixed capital formation in construction and in the machinery and equipment industry showed improvement compared to the previous quarter. However, German foreign trade had a negative effect on economic growth, with exports of goods declining at the beginning of 2014, while imports of goods were markedly up on the last quarter of 2013.
