Bright growth outlook
The German economy clearly moved up a gear in the first nine months of 2017. In the third quarter real gross domestic product notched up a seasonally and calendar-adjusted increase of 0.8%. As the Federal Statistical Office has also revised up the sequential rate for the first quarter 2017 to 0.9% (previously 0.7%), annual average growth in 2017 looks set to come in at 2.6% (in calendar-adjusted terms). This is the strongest growth rate since 2010, when the economy recovered in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
