The first quarter of 2023 is marked by a sustained pace of economic activity, translated – as far as this activity is concerned – by GDP growth of 3.2% compared to the same quarter in 2022.
According to the quarterly national accounts – 1st quarter -, made public by the National Institute of Statistics, on the supply side, this development results from the good dynamics of the secondary and tertiary sectors which each mark a sustained rate of growth during the quarter.
On the demand side, GDP growth during the first quarter was driven by domestic demand.
Regarding supply, the growth dynamic in the secondary sector is driven by the good performance of activity in all branches, indicates the Ins. Activities in this sector are dominated by the agri-food industries and public buildings and works. These two sectors contributed 0.3 points and 0.4 points respectively to the sector’s growth.
In the tertiary sector, the branch that contributed to the good growth performance is that of non-market public administration services, with 0.4%. Other branches such as trade and repair (2.6% after 4.1%) and transport (2.5% after 8.4%) are slowing down.
Speaking of demand, the Ins specifies that GDP growth is driven by domestic demand. Final consumption, boosted by its private component (2.8%), despite the drop in its public component (-6.1%), marks positive growth and contributes positively by 1.3 points to GDP growth during of the quarter. Likewise, driven by its two components, public and private, demand for investment goods is growing overall by 3.5%, for a contribution of 0.7 points to growth. Furthermore, the greater increase in the overall level of imports in volume (13.8%) than that of exports in volume (8.2%) contributes to deteriorating the balance of trade, still in deficit.
On the other hand, the Ins deplores the poor performance of the primary sector, in terms of supply. This is consequent to the 6.2% fall in activity in the export agriculture branch and the slowdown in activities in forestry (0.5% after 2.5%).
