·
Final results for Germany's third quarter Gross Domestic Product were
released today. In addition to revisions of the preliminary estimates
of total GDP released a week ago, details of the composition of both the
expenditure and income sides of the national accounts are given.
Estimates of the contribution to growth of the various sectors are also
available and are shown in the table below for the first three quarters of
2005.
· In the first chart we show the contribution of domestic demand and net
exports to total GDP growth. Over the past five years changes in both
net exports and domestic demand have been erratic and have tended to offset
one another. In the last quarter, a positive contribution of 1.30
percentage points from net exports was offset by a negative
contribution of 0.60 percentage points from domestic demand. 
· According to data on the income side of the National Accounts there has been a marked change in the distribution of income in Germany over the past five years. The share of compensation of employees in net national income has been declining over this period, as shown in the second chart. From 62.9% of net national income in the first quarter of 2001, employee compensation has declined to 58.5& in the third quarter of 2005. The counterpart to the decline in the share of compensation has been the rise in the share of entrepreneurial income (shown in the third chart) from 25.1% in the first quarter of 2001 to 29.1% in the third quarter of 2005. The changing distribution of income may account for a part of the sluggish trend in private consumption over this period.
