Data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed on Thursday that industrial production increased by 2% in February after an increase of 3.7% in January (revised from +3.5%). Economists had expected an increase of 0.1%. Since December 2022, industrial production rose by 5.8%, which more than compensated for the significant decline in December 2022 (-2.4%). Meanwhile, in annual terms, industrial production increased by 0.6% in February.
Destatis said that production in the automotive sector, which is the largest one in Germany, increased 7.6% compared to January. Production in the construction sector also increased - by 1.5%. Excluding energy and construction, production increased by 2.4% over the month and by 1.7% per annum.
The data also showed that production growth (in monthly terms) was recorded in the capital goods sector (+3.4%), the intermediate goods sector (+1.8%) and the consumer goods sector (+1.4%). Meanwhile, energy production fell by 1.1% compared to January.
Production in energy-intensive industries increased in February by 1.9% for the month and fell by 12% per annum.