Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 9, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleGermany's 2026 economy will grow due to more working days, contributing up to 0.3% to GDP. This follows two years of economic contraction.
By Rene Wagner and Maria Martinez
BERLIN, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Germany's economy is set for a calendar-related boost in 2026, as a slight increase in the number of working days is projected to boost growth by about a third, in a welcome development after two years of contraction.
Germans face a longer working year in 2026, putting in an average of 250.5 days on the job nationwide, 2.4 days more than this year and the highest figure since 2022, the country's statistics office said on Tuesday.
The increase is primarily due to several public holidays falling on weekends in 2026, the office said.
This matters as each additional working day typically contributes around 0.1 percentage points to gross domestic product, statistics show.
ING forecasts an additional 0.2 to 0.3 percentage points of growth next year due to the working day effect.
Growth next year will be driven primarily by the government's investment package and more working days, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
"For doubters, this is still too little and confirmation that the 'organic' upturn remains weak," Brzeski said. "For optimists, it is at least a start. When you haven't seen any economic growth for years, you take whatever you can get."
The German Economic Institute IW forecasts Germany's real gross domestic product will expand by 0.1% this year after two years of contraction, before gaining 0.9% next year.
One-third of this growth in 2026 will be due to the calendar effect, the institute forecast.
(Reporting by Rene Wagner, writing by Maria Martinez; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Working days refer to the days of the week when employees are expected to work, typically excluding weekends and public holidays. The number of working days can impact overall economic productivity.
Economic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period of time, usually measured as the percentage increase in real GDP.
Public holidays can affect economic productivity by reducing the number of available working days, which can impact overall output and GDP growth.
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