Germany, second-quarter GDP revised up to +0.3%: export revision weighs in

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office has revised second-quarter 2026 growth upward. In press release PD26/303, published on August 25, Destatis indicates gross domestic product rose by 0.3% compared with the first quarter, adjusted for prices, seasonal effects and working days: one tenth of a point higher than the flash estimate of July 30. Compared with the second quarter of 2025, GDP is 1.0% higher in real terms.

We wrote about the European economic picture for this quarter on August 15, and about the economic agendas of Berlin and Paris on August 23.

The correction does not stem from a general recalculation, but from the arrival of information that was not yet available at the end of July. Destatis attributes the improvement to three items: exports, wholesale and retail trade turnover that came in more positive than expected, and new data on merchandise trade relating to June 2026. It is the foreign component that explains the largest part of the gap: over the quarter, exports of goods and services grew by 2.0% on the previous period, with goods alone at +2.6%.

The president of the statistical office, Ruth Brand, commented that “the growth momentum of the German economy that began at the start of the year is continuing” (transl. from German).

Employment figures complete the picture: in the second quarter of 2026, people employed with a workplace in Germany numbered approximately 45.7 million.

A methodological clarification is due to readers here. Today’s revision is upward — from +0.2% to +0.3% — and concerns a figure the newspaper had reported in its preliminary version. This is not a change of sign nor a reconstruction of the quarter: the flash estimate from late July is by definition compiled on an incomplete information base, and the detailed results update it once final data on foreign trade and turnover come in. One tenth of a point still falls within the usual order of magnitude for such corrections, and the underlying reading — an economy growing at a modest pace — does not change with the revision.

The weight of exports in the revision is the point that deserves attention in upcoming readings. If the quarter’s push comes mainly from foreign sales, Germany’s trajectory remains tied to demand from destination markets rather than to the domestic component, and the detailed results for the following quarter will make it possible to check whether the contribution holds or fades. The trade turnover figure, which also contributed to the correction, will likewise need to be watched in subsequent monthly readings.

The three sources reporting the results all trace back to the same Destatis press release: FinanzmarktWelt and City-News reproduce its data. For the purpose of counting independent origins, there is a single primary source for the figure — the federal statistical institute — which is also the required institutional source for economic data.

The next date on the calendar concerns the results for the third quarter of 2026, which will follow the same sequence: a flash estimate and, a few weeks later, detailed results incorporating foreign trade data.

Sources: Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis), press release PD26/303 of August 25, 2026; FinanzmarktWelt; City-News.