German industrial production fell sharply in August

According to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), in August 2021, production in industry was down by 4.0% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted. Economists had expected a 0.4% decrease. Compared with August 2020, the increase in calendar adjusted production in industry amounted to 1.7%. Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany, production in August 2021 was 9.0% lower in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.

In August 2021, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 4.7%. Producers continue to report about the production being constrained by a shortage of supply of intermediate products. Within industry, the production of capital goods showed a decrease of 7.8%.

The manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers dropped by 17.5% in August on July, the manufacture of machinery and equipment was down 6.3% on a month earlier. The production of consumer goods declined by 2.6% and that of intermediate goods by 2.4%.

Outside industry, energy production was up by 4.1% in July 2021 and the production in construction decreased by 3.1%.