Quarterly National Accounts - 2nd Quarter 2020
Highlights
Quarterly GVA
1. Throughout the period 2016 to 2019, the quarterly GDP followed almost the same seasonal pattern each year. 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.
Year-on-year growth rates
2. GVA growth rate for the second quarter of 2020 over the corresponding quarter of 2019 is estimated at -32.9%. The contraction is due mainly to:
a) "Accommodation and food service activities" (-6.3 percentage points);
b) "Manufacturing" (-5.4 percentage points);
c) "Construction" (-4.2 percentage points);
d) "Transportation and storage" (-4.1 percentage points);
e) "Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles" (-3.2 percentage points) and
f) "Art, entertainment and recreation" (-3.2 percentage points) partly offset by
g) "Information and communication" (0.3 percentage point).
Quarterly growth rates of components of expenditure
3. Total final consumption expenditure in real terms declined by 34.2% in the second quarter of 2020 over the corresponding quarter of 2019. Final consumption expenditure of households contracted by 42.2% while that of general government grew by 4.3%.
4. Investment (Gross fixed capital formation) contracted by 70.2% after that of 7.0% observed in the first quarter of 2020. The 70.2% decrease resulted from contractions in “Building and construction work” (85.5%) and “Machinery and equipment” (42.8%).
5. Exports of goods and services further contracted by 52.4% after that of 10.7% in the previous quarter. The contraction is due to declines of 45.7% and 57.5% in exports of goods and export of services respectively.
Quarter-to-quarter GVA growth (based on seasonally adjusted GVA)
6. Based on seasonally adjusted data, quarter to quarter GVA registered a contraction of 31.2% in the second quarter of 2020 compared to a decline of 4.2% in the previous quarter.
