According to the Federal Statistical Agency of Germany, the German economy grew by 1.9% in 2022. For comparison, in 2021, the country's GDP increased by 2.6%. The average growth rate for the period from 2011 to 2021 was 1%. As noted in the agency's report, Europe's largest economy suffered last year from the energy crisis, high inflation, rising interest rates and disruptions in supply chains. The Covid-19 pandemic, though fading, is also having its negative impact on the economy. The volume of GDP last year was 0.7% higher than the indicator of the pre-pandemic 2019. The main engine of growth of the German economy was consumer spending, which increased by 4.6% in 2022 (by 0.4% in 2021), while the rate of increase in investment in fixed assets slowed to 0.2% from 1.2%, the growth rate of government spending decreased to 1.1% from 3.8%. Exports of goods from Germany increased by 3.2% last year, and imports increased by 6.7%. Which, by the way, had a negative impact on the country's GDP. The total deficit of public budgets in Germany in 2022 amounted to 101.631 billion euros (compared to 134.252 billion euros in 2021). Thus, the decrease was 24%. The negative balance of the federal budget decreased to 117.633 billion euros from 145.925 billion euros. Throughout 2022, an average of 45.6 million people worked in Germany, which is 589 thousand (1.3%) higher than in the previous year.
