Quarterly National Accounts
2nd Quarter 2009
Highlights

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) First quarter 2009 over first quarter 2008
2. GDP growth for the first quarter of 2009 over the corresponding quarter of 2008 has been revised downwards to 1.1% from 2.7% estimated in June 2009. This downward revision is mainly due to a contraction in “Manufacturing” (-0.2% instead of 6.6%) and a lower growth in “Transport, storage and communications” (3.8% instead of 5.8%).

(ii) Second quarter 2009 over second quarter 2008
3. GDP growth rate for the second quarter of 2009 over the corresponding quarter of 2008 is estimated at 2.3%. The main contributors to the 2.3% growth in GDP during the second quarter of 2009 were “Transport, storage and communications” (0.9 percentage point), “Financial intermediation” (0.7 percentage point), “Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing” (0.6 percentage point) and “Real estate, renting and business activities” (0.6 percentage point).

Quarterly growth rates of components of expenditure
4. During the second quarter of 2009, total final consumption expenditure in real terms increased by 4.0%, higher than the 2.4% growth in the first quarter of 2009. The final consumption expenditure of households grew by 3.2% in the second quarter of 2009 compared to 2.9% in the previous quarter while that of general government rose by 7.8% as opposed to a low growth of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2009.

5. During the second quarter of 2009, investment grew by 2.6%, lower than the 3.8% growth registered in the first quarter of 2009. The 2.6% growth was the net result of a growth of 9.8% in “Machinery and equipment” partly offset by a decline of 1.9% in “Building and construction work”.

6. The growth of 9.8% in “Machinery and equipment” in the second quarter of 2009 was attributable to a growth of 21.6% in “Other machinery and equipment”, partly offset by declines of 21.4% and 13.0% in “Passenger car” and “Other transport equipment” respectively. On the other hand, the negative growth of 1.9% in “Building and construction work” was due to declines of 12.4% in “Residential building” and 3.9% in “Non-residential building”, and a growth of 18.3% in “Other construction work”.

7. Exports and imports of goods and services continued on a declining trend which started during the last quarters of 2008. During the second quarter of 2009, exports of goods and services contracted by 12.7% compared to a decline of 8.0% in the previous quarter. Imports of goods and services declined by 8.8% after the decrease of 17.1% registered in the first quarter of 2009.

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 picked up in the second quarter of 2009 with a growth of 0.6%, after the slow down noted since the fourth quarter of 2008.