Cyprus GDP shows big drop in industry, construction, services

A full breakdown of national accounts figures for the third quarter showed a slightly less pessimistic picture than the flash estimate published a few weeks ago.
The revised data estimate that real GDP growth contracted by 2.5% (not seasonally adjusted) over the same period of the previous year in the third quarter, compared with a previous estimate of a 2.9% contraction.

The full breakdown of figures shows that the decline was felt across almost all sectors. Industry, which includes mining, manufacturing, and electricity and water, declined by 4.3% in the third quarter, marking its third quarter of decline.

Similarly, construction declined by 6.3%, deepening of the decline seen in the previous two quarters. A steeper decline was also seen in the broad category of wholesale and retail services and transport, which fell by 7.4%.

The only two sectors that grew in the third quarter were financial intermediation and real estate, and publicly provided services.
It is probable that the growth in the financial services and real estate sector was concentrated among banks.
Public administration grew by 1.8%, but this was the slowest pace for two years.

Looking at the national accounts from an expenditure basis, consumption of households dropped by 1.1% compared with the same period of the previous year. Household spending has not declined since the first quarter of 2003 when the Iraq war started.

General government spending on also fell very sharply by 15.6%. However, this is partly a reflection of the very sharp increase in the third quarter of 2008, when the government tried to jack up spending in order to tackle the slowdown.

Gross fixed capital formation, namely fixed investment, fell very steeply by 12%. Here all subcategories were affected: housing construction, non-housing construction, transport, metal and machinery, and agriculture.

The changes in inventories how that the economy as a whole has been destocking.
Exports and imports declined very sharply, which they have done now for more than a year.