Germany industrial production increased in February, underpinned by consumer goods output, data from Destatis revealed on Thursday.
Industrial output grew 0.2 percent month-on-month in February, confounding expectations for a fall of 0.2 percent. Nonetheless, this was slower than the revised 1.4 percent increase posted in January.
Excluding energy and construction, production grew only 0.1 percent in February.
On a yearly basis, overall industrial output gained 3.2 percent, faster than the 1.1 percent rise in the previous month.
Within industry, the production of consumer goods was up 4.4 percent and intermediate goods by 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, capital goods output decreased 2.0 percent.
Outside of industry, energy production gained 4.9 percent, while production in construction fell 0.7 percent.
Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, production was 3.8 percent lower. This gap in production was likely to be due to the continuing shortage of intermediate products, because of which many enterprises have problems completing new orders, Destatis said.
Data released on Wednesday showed factory orders declined for the first time in four months in February largely driven by the fall in foreign demand. Orders were down 2.2 percent on a monthly basis.
The economy ministry noted that the February data practically does not include any effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The uncertainty about the future course of the economy has increased massively following the war in Ukraine. The war will initially slow down the recovery of industrial activity, the ministry added.
