Data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that industrial production increased by 2.1% in February, accelerating compared to January (+1.3%, revised from 1%) and recording the sharpest increase since January 2023. Economists had expected growth of 0.3%. In annual terms, industrial production fell by 4.9% after a 5.3% decline in January. Meanwhile, over the last three months (through February), industrial production decreased by 0.5% compared to the previous three-month period.
Destatis said that the increase in production compared to January is largely due to the performance of the construction industry (+7.9%). By contrast, the drop in production in the energy production sector (-6.5%) had a clearly negative impact on overall performance. Industrial production, excluding energy and construction, grew by 1.9% m/m and fell by 5.5% per annum. The production of intermediate goods increased by 2.5% m/m, the production of capital goods was up 1.5% m/m and the production of consumer goods rose by 1.9% m/m. Production in energy-intensive industries increased by 4.2% m/m and by 0.9% per annum. The three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in these industrial branches was 0.2% higher in the period from December 2023 to February 2024 than in the previous three months.