German industrial production fell sharply in January

According to the report from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in January 2021, production in industry was down by 2.5% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted basis. Economists had expected a 0.2% increase. Compared with January 2020, the decrease in calendar adjusted production in industry amounted to 3.9%.

Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic in Germany, production in January 2021 was 4.2% lower in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.

In January 2021, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 0.5%. Within industry, the production of capital goods showed a decrease of 0.8% and the production of consumer goods of 3.0%. The production of intermediate goods increased by 0.7%. Outside industry, energy production was up by 0.6% in January 2021. Production in construction declined by 12.2% against the background of the strong increase recorded in December 2020 (revised value: +5.4%) and the end of the value added tax reduction.

In December 2020, the corrected figure on the production in industry showed an increase of 1.9% (provisional: 0.0%) on November 2020.