As reported by Germany's Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the German economy is slow in gaining momentum. The country's price, season and calender adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of the current year increased by 0.1 percent compared to the previous quarter. In a year-on-year comparison, the price-adjusted GDP was down 1.4 percent in the first quarter this year. However, this considerable decrease was mainly due to calendar factors. In calendar-adjusted terms, the GDP decreased by just 0.2 percent.

According to the most recent calculations, in the last quarter of 2012 the German economy had suffered a major setback of 0.7 percent. Destatis reported that, for the entire year of 2012, the GDP figures have not changed as compared with the previously published data which indicated an increase of 0.7 percent and a calendar-adjusted increase of 0.9 percent.

Destatis said that in the first quarter of this year, although German imports of goods were markedly down from the last quarter of 2012, exports decreased too. The balance of exports and imports had almost no impact on economic growth in the first quarter of 2013.