Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the third quarter of 2022
As a first estimate, the national economy saw its gross domestic product (GDP) increase in quarterly variation by 0.4% in the third quarter of the year, while it had contracted slightly in the previous quarter (-0.2%). Thus, over the three months from July to September, the gross domestic product increased by 2.9% on an annual basis, marking an acceleration compared to the two previous quarters (respectively at 2.3% and 2.6%). Despite a difficult global environment and record inflation, economic activity is continuing its recovery dynamic after the 2020 health crisis; a process that is still incomplete, since the national income still remains below its level at the end of 2019.
It should be noted that these estimations incorporate the recent regular reassessments of the annual national accounts, which led to the revision of the results for 2019, 2020 and 2021 accounts. In this context, it should be reminded that the national accounts of a given year are compiled in three versions (provisional, semi-final and final) according to the flow of primary data involved in their elaboration process. Whereas the quarterly accounts provide the very first estimate of growth for a given year, together with the publication of the results of the last quarter of the same year.
On this basis, economic growth is now estimated at 1.5% for 2019, -8.6% in 2020 and 4.3% in 2021 (against a previous estimate respectively of 1.3%, -8.7% and 3. 1%). The shifting is relatively noticeable high for the 2021 financial year, with real growth rate estimate raised by 1.2 percentage points in the provisional annual account compared to the initial estimate provided by the quarterly accounts following the publication of the last quarter of 2021 accounts and published in February 2022. This adjustment results mainly from the revaluation of real growth of value added in the accommodation, cafes and restaurants on the one hand, and that of health services activities on the other hand.
In view of this routine annual calibration of the quarterly accounts with the annual accounts system, and particularly with the 2021 annual account in its provisional version, the series of real quarterly growth figures over the period 2019 to 2021 have been adjusted, but also those relating to the first and second quarters of 2022.
