It has been nearly three years since Luxembourg last experienced negative annual growth: in the fourth quarter of 2022, the country’s gross domestic product fell by 2.2%, announced Statec on Friday 17 March.

You would have to go back to , marked by the generalised confinement, to find negative growth in Luxembourg.

In detail, the value added of financial and insurance activities fell by 6.4% between December 2022 and December 2021. Industry’s value added also fell into negative territory, by 6.3%. In contrast, value added in other services jumped by 5.8% and in public administration, education and health by 5.4%.

For the year 2022 as a whole, Statec’s first estimate is for positive growth of 1.6%, fairly close to its estimate of 1.7% published last February.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.