Schleswig-Holstein Tops German Länder Growth Table

Schleswig-Holstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Hamburg, and Bremen are the German federal states with the highest economic growth in the third quarter of 2022: Schleswig-Holstein at 2.4 percent, Rhineland-Palatinate 1.8 percent, Hamburg 1.6 percent, and Bremen 1.3 percent. Berlin follows at 1.2 percent. These are new estimates by the ifo Institute. “This is the first time we have calculated quarterly figures for the Länder, shortly after doing so for Germany as a whole,” says ifo economic researcher Robert Lehmann. “Until now, we had produced figures only for full calendar years, and with some delay.”

At the bottom of the table are Bavaria (minus 0.8 percent), Saxony-Anhalt (minus 0.9 percent), Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (minus 1.4 percent), and North Rhine-Westphalia (minus 2.8 percent).

“The differences are the result of the states’ structural characteristics,” Lehmann says. “Schleswig-Holstein is a case in point: Länder that built up higher surplus savings in the coronavirus years have greater opportunities for consumption today. Federal states with a strong automotive industry (Bremen) or with a high proportion of services (Berlin) are also doing quite well. Those Länder where growth is lower, meanwhile, have a higher share of energy-intensive manufacturing such as the metal industry (North Rhine-Westphalia) or higher inflation rates in 2022 (Saxony-Anhalt). Overall, growth in the Länder is in line with the ifo Business Climate Indices for the respective region.”

“We used a very precise estimation method for these numbers, which we tested against the previous 30 years,” Lehmann adds. These estimates are based on the Federal Statistical Office’s initial official figures released for German gross domestic product (up 0.3 percent on the previous quarter).