The gross domestic product fell in Germany by 0.3 percent. In the second quarter of 2025, compared to the first quarter, after taking into account the impact of prices, seasonal and calendar factors – Destatis said on Friday. This is the second reading of the indicator and it is much worse than the initial reading, which at the end of July spoke about a decline by only 0.1 percent. Therefore, the data surprised economists negatively.
Year on year there was an increase, but it was only 0.2 percent. This means the first annual increase in nine quarters, but it's hard to say it's good. For comparison, Polish GDP increased by 3.4 percent. RDR by quick respect. In general, we are catching up with a powerful neighbor from 2018.
According to the July forecasts of the IMF, this year we are to make up for a significant part of the distance separating us from Germany. Their economy is to grow by 0.1 percent. And ours by 3.2 percent Next year, Germany's growth is forecast at 0.9 percent, and Poland at 3.1 percent.
As early as 2023, the German GDP per capita, measured by the value of the purchasing power of money, exceeded this Polish by 41.4 percent. – results from the April tables of the IMF. This year, their advantage is to drop to 31.6 percent, next to 28.3 percent. In 2030, it is estimated that it will amount to only 18.4 percent. At this pace We can catch up with them in 2037.
German industry in the reverse
“In particular, industrial production was worse than initially expected,” says Destatis.
Based on new available data, production in the manufacturing and construction sector was worse than expected in June 2025. Production fell in almost all sectors of the manufacturing sector. Only the production of motor vehicles and parts for motor vehicles and other transport equipment recorded a slight increase compared to the previous quarter.
The decrease in production comes from the problems of exporting goods. Exports after taking into account prices dropped significantly by 2.4 percent. compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Significant decreases in the export of goods (-3.6 percent KDK) only partially balanced the increase in exports of services (+1.8 percent KDK).
“The negative development of the export of goods resulted, among others from lower exports of machines, chemical products as well as motor vehicles and their parts” – Destatis says. This means that a slight increase in car production is more of an internal demand than exports. Customs duties on the American market (27.5 percent) do not give positive prospects for German exports, although hope may arouse a plan to reduce them to 15 percent published on Thursday.
In addition, private consumption in Germany for the second quarter was corrected down compared to fast reading due to new information on service sectors, such as monthly statistics of the hotel industry for June 2025. Private consumption recorded only a small increase of 0.1 percent. KDK and it was much lower than in preliminary estimates. The value added in the trade, transport and hotel sectors dropped by 0.6 percent. The economy was not helped by 0.8 percent growing KDK consumer expenses of the public sector (including budget salaries).
Investments in fixed assets fell significantly in the second quarter of 2025 (-1.4 percent of the KDK) after a slight increase at the beginning of the year. Investments in equipment – mainly machines, devices and vehicles – fell by 1.9 percent. Investments in construction fell even more rapidly, by 2.1 percent. KDK.
The construction sector recorded a stronger decrease than assumed in the PKB preliminary report, at -3.7 percent, which is a disappointment after a positive beginning of the year, which the industry owed to good weather conditions.
“To sum up, the economic indicators received between the publication of the initial GDP and the new status of calculations caused a deterioration in the general economic situation in the second quarter of 2025.” – describes the German statistical office.
