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Gross Domestic Product in volume registered a year-on-year rate of change of 4.2% and a quarter-on-quarter rate of change of 2.9%
Quarterly National Accounts - Flash Estimate
Gross Domestic Product in volume registered a year-on-year rate of change of 4.2% and a quarter-on-quarter rate of change of 2.9% - 3rd Quarter 2021
29 October 2021

Summary

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in real terms registered a year-on-year rate of change of 4.2% in the third quarter of 2021. In the previous quarter, the year-on-year rate of change of GDP was 16.1%, influenced, to a great extent, by the strong impact of the pandemic in the second quarter 2020.  

The partial dissipation of this base effect led to a positive contribution of domestic demand to the year-on year rate of change of GDP lower than the observed in the previous quarter. The contribution of net external demand was slightly more negative in the third quarter, reflecting an increase of Imports of Goods and Services more intense than that of Exports of Goods and Services. It should be noted that in the third quarter of 2021, the deflators for exports and, to a greater extent, for imports increased significantly, mainly related to prices of energy products and raw materials, extending the loss in terms of trade observed in the previous quarter.

Compared to the second quarter of 2021, GDP increased by 2.9% in volume, with a positive contribution of net external demand to the quarter on quarter rate of change of GDP, after the negative contribution in the second quarter, and by the less positive contribution of domestic demand in the third quarter of 2021. The GDP growth in the third quarter reflects the gradual decrease of the restrictions to mobility imposed by the pandemic, in line with the increase in vaccination against COVID-19, after two quarters with opposite results: a strong reduction of GDP in the first quarter (-3.3%), due to the general lockdown, and an increase by 4.4% in the second quarter, following the gradual lifting of the restrictions on mobility.


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