Quarterly GDP
1. Throughout the period 2005 to 2008, the quarterly GDP follows the same seasonal pattern every year. The production is relatively low in the first quarter, increases gradually in the two subsequent quarters and peaks in the last quarter before declining in the first quarter of the following year.

Quarterly growth rate by industry group
(i) Third quarter 2008 over third quarter 2007
2. GDP growth for the third quarter of 2008 over the corresponding quarter of 2007 has been revised slightly upwards to 4.6% instead of 4.5% as estimated in December 2008. However, at sectoral level, some important changes were made as follows: “Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing” (8.9% instead of 2.8%), “Electricity, gas and water” (7.7% instead of 5.8%) and “Transport, storage and communications” (4.2% instead of 5.5%).

(ii) Fourth quarter 2008 over fourth quarter 2007
3. GDP growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2008 over the corresponding quarter of 2007 was 4.3%. The main contributors to this growth were “Financial intermediation” (1.0 percentage point), “Real estate, renting and business activities” (0.9 percentage point), “Manufacturing (0.7 percentage point) and “Transport, storage and communications” (0.7 percentage point).

Quarterly growth rates of components of expenditure
4. During the fourth quarter of 2008, total final consumption expenditure increased by 6.5%, higher than the 5.3% growth in the third quarter of 2008. The final consumption expenditure of households grew by a further 7.4% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to 6.9% growth the previous quarter and that of general government increased by 2.4% as apposed to a decline of 2.7% in the third quarter.

5. After a growth of 5.0% in the third quarter of 2008, investment declined by 11.8% in the fourth quarter of 2008 when compared to the corresponding quarter of 2007. This was the net result of a decline of 29.4% in “Machinery and equipment” and a growth of 8.5% in “Building and construction work”.

6. The negative growth of 29.4% in “Machinery and equipment” in the fourth quarter of 2008 was attributable to declines in Passenger car” (-13.4%) and “Other machinery and equipment” (-5.8%), accentuated by an important contraction in “Other transport equipment” (-77.4%). On the other hand, the 8.5% growth in “Building and construction work” was attributable to high growths of 22.2% and 14.2% in “Other construction work” and “Residential building” respectively.

7. Exports of goods and services declined by 15.0% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to a 1.0% growth in the previous quarter. This is explained by decreases of 11.2% and 18.6% in both exports of goods and exports of services respectively. Imports of goods and services declined by a further 6.6% during the fourth quarter of 2008 after a decrease of 7.3% noted in the previous quarter. This was the result of decreases in both imports of goods (-9.1%) and imports of services (-0.2%).

Quarter to quarter GDP growth (based on seasonally adjusted GDP)
8. Quarter to quarter GDP growth rates based on seasonally adjusted data show that the economy declined by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to 2.6%. in the first quarter, -0.5% in the second quarter and 2.4% in the third quarter.