Data published by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) showed that industrial production fell by 3.1% in December, recording the sharpest decline since March 2022, and offsetting the November increase by 0.4% (revised from +0.2%). Economists had expected production to fall by only 0.7%. In 2022 as a whole, production was calendar-adjusted 0.6% lower than in 2021 and down 5.0% from the pre-crisis year of 2019.
Destatis said that excluding energy and construction, industrial production fell by 2.1% in December. The production of consumer goods increased by 0.3%, the production of capital goods remained unchanged, while the production of intermediate goods decreased by 5.8%. Compared with December 2021, the decrease in industry excluding energy and construction amounted to 2.2%.
The data also showed that energy production decreased by 2.3% compared to November, and production in the construction sector fell by 8.0%. The construction industry was probably also affected by the high number of frost days. Meanwhile, production in energy-intensive industries decreased by 6.1% compared to November. With some exceptions, production in energy-intensive industries has been continuously declining throughout 2022.