A latent weekly GDP indicator for Germany

This paper introduces a weekly GDP indicator to track real economic activity in Germany in real-time. We use a mixed-frequency dynamic factor model with quarterly, monthly, and weekly indicators and obtain the weekly GDP indicator as the weighted common component of the mixed-frequency dataset. Our indicator is able to approximate latent week-on-week growth of German GDP. In addition, it enables computing a weekly GDP series in levels, which is also of great interest for central bankers, policy makers, and practitioners interested in analysing the current state of the economy in a timely manner. Finally, we demonstrate the benefits of our indicator for high-frequency tracking of the German economy using a recursive nowcasting exercise.