|
Industrial production fell in December by 1.6% compared with the
previous month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.4%
fall.
The seventh consecutive monthly fall in German industrial output
in December confirms that industry remains a significant drag on
growth, Capital Economics' senior Europe economist Franziska
Palmas said.
"High energy costs and weak domestic and external demand will
cause German industrial output to decline further in 2024,"
Palmas said.
In energy-intensive industries, production fell by 5.8% in
December on the month, the office said.
There were particularly strong declines in the important
chemical industry, with production falling by 7.6% on the month,
and in construction, with a 3.4% decline. Production also fell
in many other sectors, albeit less sharply, the statistics
office said.
However, the 4.0% increase in production in the automotive
industry had a positive effect on the overall result.
"The sharp drop in both exports and imports, as well as today's
industrial production, not only illustrates the weakness of the
German economy's backbone but also increases the risk of a
downward revision of fourth-quarter GDP growth," said Carsten
Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.
Gross domestic product contracted by 0.3% in the fourth quarter
compared to the previous quarter, prompting economists to warn
of another recession.
In the last quarter of the year, a less volatile figure,
industrial production fell 1.8% compared to the three months
before.
In November, production fell by 0.2% compared to October, after
the preliminary results were revised up from a 0.7% drop.
In 2023 as a whole, production was 1.5% lower than in 2022 after
calendar adjustment.
German industrial orders unexpectedly jumped by 8.9% in
December, posting their highest month-on-month increase in more
than three years, driven by "an exceptionally" high number of
aircraft orders, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday.
The lack of orders in manufacturing is increasingly becoming a
burden on the German economy, the Ifo Institute said on Monday,
and economists warned that Tuesday's data did not change that.
(Reporting by Maria Martinez in Berlin and Tristan Veyet in
Gdansk; Editing by Miranda Murray, Michael Perry and Sharon
Singleton)
[© 2024 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
