Thursday, December 11, 2014

11/12/2014: QNA Q3 2014: Real GDP & GNP Growth Dynamics


Here is the second post on QNA detailed analysis, covering sectoral distribution of activity in Q3 2014.




Now, onto a closer look at the GDP and GNP aggregates.

First, non-seasonally adjusted data, allowing for year-on-year comparatives.

  • In Q3 2014, taxes net of subsidies amounted to EUR5.103 billion which is up 4.33% (+EUR212 million) on Q3 2013
  • GDP in real terms reached EUR45.972 billion in Q3 2014, which is 3.54% higher than in Q3 2013. This is the slowest rate of GDP growth in y/y terms since Q4 2013 when GDP contracted 1.15%. Overall, GDP growth in Q3 2014 in y/y terms was less than half the rate of growth in Q2 2014.
  • In Q3 2014, GNP stood at EUR38.52 billion which represents a growth of 2.49% y/y - the slowest rate of growth since Q2 2013.
  • Excluding taxes and subsidies, private sectors GDP (GDP netting out taxes and subsidies) few strongly in Q3 2014 - which is the good news - rising 4.18% y/y. This is slower than Q2 2014 growth of 6.66%, but is better than Q1 growth of 3.55%.




GNP/GDP gap at the end of Q3 2014 stood at 16.21% which is the lowest in 3 quarters. Private sectors GNP/GDP gap also fell - reaching 18.23%, down from 19.18% in Q2.



Now, consider seasonally-adjusted data, allowing for quarter-on-quarter comparatives:

  • In Q3 2014, seasonally-adjusted GDP grew at the rate of 0.0793% which marks the slowest rate of q/q growth since Q4 2013 when real GDP contracted q/q. The rate of growth in Q3 was 14 times lower than in Q2 and almost 36 times lower than in Q1 2014. In effect, the economy - measured by real GDP - stood still in Q3 2014.
  • Meanwhile, in Q3 2014, real GNP expanded by 0.472% which marks weak, sub-period average growth and the second consecutive quarter of very poor GNP performance: in Q2 2014 GNP expanded by just 0.23% on q/q basis. 
  • Last healthy growth in q/q terms for real GNP was back in Q1 2014 when it expanded by 1.86%.


Quarter-on-quarter growth terms signal official recessions (defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth). Charts below map relative GDP and GNP performance in q/q terms by each quarter, identifying strong expansions, weak expansions and contractions. As charts clearly show, in GDP terms, we are currently in the first quarter of sub-average growth after Q1-Q2 above average growth periods. In GNP terms, we are into third consecutive quarter of sub-average growth.




Once again, broadly-speaking, we are witnessing a slowdown in growth momentum (bad news), but are still managing to stay in non-negative growth territory (good news).

Stay tuned for more Q3 QNA analysis later.

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