German economy slows in third quarter

  13 November 2015    Read: 794
German economy slows in third quarter
The German economy slowed in the third quarter of the year, according to official figures, but growth in France picked up.
Germany`s economy grew by 0.3% in the July-to-September period, down from 0.4% in the previous quarter. Growth was held back by foreign trade, with imports rising more strongly than exports.

The French economy also grew by 0.3% in the same period, but this marked a pick-up from zero growth previously. The third quarter growth figure for the eurozone as a whole is due to be released later.

Higher imports

Germany`s Federal Statistics Office said the economy had shown "continued moderate growth".

It said growth was helped by increased domestic consumption, but it added foreign trade "had a downward effect on growth because the increase in imports was markedly larger than that of exports".

A sharp rise in imports also weighed on France`s third-quarter growth figure, according to the French statistics agency INSEE.

But it added that the economy saw an increase in household spending, and that production of goods and services picked up.

INSEE also confirmed that the economy saw zero growth in the second quarter of the year, and grew by 0.7% in the January-to-March period.

"The (GDP) figure... confirms that we have left in 2015 the period of very weak growth that France had experienced since 2011," said French Finance Minister Michel Sapin.

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