(Bloomberg) -- Denmark's gross domestic product rose 0.8 percent in the final quarter of last year, according to a trend indicator from Statistics Denmark, giving a preliminary annual growth rate of 1.1 percent.
If confirmed, the annual figure would be higher than what the European Union last week predicted for the Nordic country. The EU Commission forecast a growth rate of 0.8 percent in 2018 and 1.6 percent in 2019. The GDP readings for 2018 are negatively affected by a one-off transaction linked to the sale of a Danish patent in 2017.
Industry and transport were the biggest positive contributors in the final three months of 2018, according to the indicator published on Thursday.
Tore Stramer, an economist at Nykredit, said the reading showed that the small and open Nordic economy was coping relatively well in the face of a slowdown in Europe, its biggest export market. But Stramer also highlighted the uncertain nature of the indicator. Statistics Denmark acknowledges that the indicator is less accurate than GDP readings, which typically carry a margin of error of plus or minus half a percentage point.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nick Rigillo in Copenhagen at nrigillo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jonas Bergman at jbergman@bloomberg.net, Christian Wienberg
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