Oops! Danish economy grew after all: new data
Published: 30 Sep, 2014 CET.
Updated: Tue 30 Sep 2014 13:52 CET
Industrial production growth and an increase in consumption mean that the economy grew slightly in the second quarter despite initial report to the contrary.
The Danish economy grew by 0.2 percent in the second quarter, Statistics Denmark said on Tuesday, after previously estimating that economic output fell by 0.3 percent in the period. "Developments in the second quarter especially reflect progress within industrial production. On the demand side household consumption grew," the agency said in a statement. "Four quarters of growth in a row for the first time since the financial crisis! Things are going better than expected," Danske Bank chief economist Steen Bocian wrote on Twitter. The Danish government last month presented a budget proposal that would raise deficit spending to the maximum permitted under EU rules, based on two percent's growth next year. The prediction had been seen by many economists as being overly optimistic, especially after initial estimates had suggested the economy unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter, but Bocian said the revised data could prove them wrong. "I wish the discussion on the government's growth forecast stops soon," he said. Consumer confidence in Denmark recently reached levels not seen since 2007, just before the country was hit by a burst housing bubble. However, some observers cautioned that regardless of what happened in the previous quarter, the Danish recovery was looking shaky due to geopolitical tensions in Russia and an economic slowdown in Germany. "It doesn't change that the growth prospects for the rest of the year are [looking] sluggish," Sydbank economist Peter Bojsen Jakobsen wrote in a note to investors.
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The Danish economy grew by 0.2 percent in the second quarter, Statistics Denmark said on Tuesday, after previously estimating that economic output fell by 0.3 percent in the period.
"Developments in the second quarter especially reflect progress within industrial production. On the demand side household consumption grew," the agency said in a statement.
"Four quarters of growth in a row for the first time since the financial crisis! Things are going better than expected," Danske Bank chief economist Steen Bocian wrote on Twitter.
The Danish government last month presented a budget proposal that would raise deficit spending to the maximum permitted under EU rules, based on two percent's growth next year.
The prediction had been seen by many economists as being overly optimistic, especially after initial estimates had suggested the economy unexpectedly shrank in the second quarter, but Bocian said the revised data could prove them wrong.
"I wish the discussion on the government's growth forecast stops soon," he said.
Consumer confidence in Denmark recently reached levels not seen since 2007, just before the country was hit by a burst housing bubble.
However, some observers cautioned that regardless of what happened in the previous quarter, the Danish recovery was looking shaky due to geopolitical tensions in Russia and an economic slowdown in Germany.
"It doesn't change that the growth prospects for the rest of the year are [looking] sluggish," Sydbank economist Peter Bojsen Jakobsen wrote in a note to investors.
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