National Accounts Institute
2019-11-29
PRESS RELEASE
Links: | NBB.Stat | General information |
Economic activity up by 0.4 % in the third quarter of 2019
- Domestic employment picked up by 0.4 % in the third quarter of 2019
Economic growth
In the third quarter of 2019, seasonally and calendar adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew by
0.4 % in volume terms compared with the previous quarter. On an annual basis, economic activity rose by 1.6 %.
In comparison to the previous quarter, value added grew only moderately in industry (+0.1 %), and more markedly in the services sector (+0.4 %) and in construction (+1.3 %). The trend observed in services was influenced by a specific transaction covering a wide-ranging R&D cooperation agreement being recorded in the national accounts. This transaction has had a positive incidence on quarter-on-quarter GDP growth to the tune of about 0.1 of a percentage point.
Households and government stepped up their consumption expenditure by respectively 0.6 and 0.5 %. Business investment also picked up (+1.0 %). On the other hand, household investment (-1.5 %) and public investment (-0.2 %) recorded a fall.
Net exports of goods and services made a negative contribution to the change in GDP (-0.1 of a percentage point), as the drop in exports (-0.9 %) was slightly more than the decline in imports (-0.8 %).
Employment
In the third quarter of 2019, domestic employment was 0.4 % higher than in the previous quarter. It gained 1.3 % on a year-on-year basis.
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GDP, QUARTERLY GROWTH VOLUME | GDP AND THE ECONOMIC CYCLE | |
(data adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects) | ||
6 | 15 | ||||||||||
Percentage change compared to | 10 | ||||||||||
4 | 5 | ||||||||||
corresponding quarter of | previous quarter | 2 | 0 | ||||||||
the previous year | |||||||||||
-5 | |||||||||||
2017 I | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0 | -10 | |||||||
II | 1.9 | 0.3 | -15 | ||||||||
III | 1.7 | 0.1 | -2 | -20 | |||||||
IV | 2.0 | 0.8 | -4 | -25 | |||||||
2018 I | 1.5 | 0.2 | -30 | ||||||||
II | 1.4 | 0.3 | -6 | -35 | |||||||
2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |||
III | 1.5 | 0.2 |
IV | 1.5 | 0.8 | Quarterly accounts, percentage year-on-year change in GDP | ||||||||||
in volume, calendar adjusted data | |||||||||||||
2019 I | 1.3 | 0.0 | |||||||||||
(left-hand scale) | |||||||||||||
II | 1.3 | 0.3 | NBB's synthetic business survey curve, smoothed data | ||||||||||
(right-hand scale) | |||||||||||||
III | 1.6 | 0.4 | |||||||||||
NBB's synthetic business survey curve, seasonally adjusted gross data (right-hand scale)
MAIN COMPONENTS
(percentage change in volume compared to the preceding period, data adjusted for seasonal and calendar effects)
2017 | 2018 | 2019 | |||||||||
IV | I | II | III | IV | I | II | III | ||||
1. Value added | |||||||||||
Industry | 1.0 | -1.6 | -1.1 | -0.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 | -0.4 | 0.1 | |||
Construction | 1.5 | 1.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | |||
Services | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.4 | |||
P.m. GDP | 0.8 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 0.4 | |||
2, Expenditure | |||||||||||
Private consumption expenditure (1) | 0.0 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | |||
Final consumption expenditure of general | 0.5 | ||||||||||
government | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.8 | -0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.7 | ||||
Total gross fixed capital formation | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 0.3 | 3.2 | -0.3 | 1.5 | 0.3 | |||
Business | 3.2 | -0.2 | 0.8 | 0.2 | 3.8 | -1.0 | 1.9 | 1.0 | |||
Housing | -1.5 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 2.8 | 2.5 | 1.9 | -1.5 | |||
Public administration | 2.5 | 4.7 | 2.0 | 0.9 | 0.1 | -1.2 | -2.0 | -0.2 | |||
Domestic demand (excluding inventories) | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | |||
Change in inventories (2) | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 | -0.2 | -0.5 | -0.1 | 0.0 | |||
Exports of goods and services | 3.0 | -0.6 | -1.3 | 0.8 | 1.6 | -0.5 | 0.4 | -0.9 | |||
Imports of goods and services | 2.9 | 0.0 | -0.6 | 1.0 | 1.6 | -0.8 | 0.7 | -0.8 | |||
Net exports of goods and services (2) | 0.1 | -0.4 | -0.6 | -0.2 | 0.0 | 0.3 | -0.3 | -0.1 | |||
3, Labour market | |||||||||||
Total number of workers | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.4 | |||
- Including non-profit institutions serving households.
- Contribution to the change in GDP.
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National Bank of Belgium published this content on 29 November 2019 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 29 November 2019 14:42:03 UTC