Highlights

Quarterly GDP

1. Throughout the period 2006 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) Second quarter 2009 over second quarter 2008

 2. GDP growth for the second quarter of 2009 over the corresponding quarter of 2008 worked out to 2.3%, same as estimated in September 2009.

 (ii) Third quarter 2009 over third quarter 2008

 3. GDP growth rate for the third quarter of 2009 over the corresponding quarter of 2008 is estimated at 3.8%. The main contributors to the 3.8% growth in GDP during the third quarter of 2009 were “Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing” (0.9 percentage point), “Transport, storage and communications” (0.7 percentage point), “Construction” (0.6 percentage point), “Real estate, renting and business activities” (0.6 percentage point) and “Financial intermediation” (0.5 percentage point).

 Quarterly growth rates of components of expenditure

4. During the third quarter of 2009, total final consumption expenditure in real terms increased by 3.1%, slightly higher than the 3.0% growth in the second quarter of 2009. The final consumption expenditure of households grew by 2.6% in the third quarter of 2009 compared to 2.3% in the previous quarter while that of general government grew by 5.8% following the growth of 6.5% in the second quarter of 2009.

5. During the third quarter of 2009, investment declined by 0.8% compared to a growth of 1.4% in the previous quarter. The negative growth of 0.8% is the net result of a growth of 9.6% in “Building and construction work” and a contraction of 14.7% in “Machinery and equipment”.

 6.  The growth of 9.6% in “Building and construction work” in the third quarter of 2009 was attributable to growths of 41.7% in “Other construction work” and 19.8% in “Residential building”, partly offset by a decline of 4.6% in “Non-residential building”. The decline of 14.7% in “Machinery and equipment” is explained by contractions of 55.2% and 13.8% in “Other transport equipment” and “Passenger car” respectively.

7. The declining trend noted in exports and imports of goods and services since the last quarter of 2008 persisted in the third quarter of 2009. Exports of goods and services fell by 7.2% in the third quarter of 2009 compared to a contraction of 12.7 in the previous quarter. This is explained by declines of 10.8% and 3.2% in exports of goods and export of services respectively.

8. Imports of goods and services registered a decline of 3.9% during the third quarter of 2009 after that of 8.7% in the previous quarter. The 3.9% decline was the result of contractions in both imports of goods (-5.3%) and imports of services (-0.3%).

Quarter to quarter GDP growth (based on seasonally adjusted GDP)

9. Quarter to quarter GDP growth rates based on seasonally adjusted data confirm improvement in the economy as from the second quarter of 2009 with a growth of 0.8% in the second quarter, followed by a 3.3% growth in the third quarter.

December 2009

More: Quarterly National Accounts – 3rd Quarter  2009

Introduction

Table 1 - Quarterly Gross Domestic Product by industry group at current basic prices, Q₁ 2006 – Q₃ 2009

Table 2 - Gross Domestic Product-sectoral growth rates (% over corresponding period of previous year), Q₁ 2006 – Q₃ 2009

Table 3 - Quarterly expenditure on Gross Domestic Product at current prices, Q₁ 2006 – Q₃ 2009

Table 4 - Expenditure on GDP - Growth rates (% over corresponding period of previous year), Q₁ 2006 – Q₃ 2009

Annex