The largest industrial sector in Germany increased its output by 7.6 percent compared to January.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Thanks to increasing orders and decreasing delivery bottlenecks, German companies ramped up their production in February for the second month in a row. Industry, construction and energy suppliers together produced 2.0 percent more than in the previous month, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Thursday.
Economists surveyed by the Reuters news agency had only expected a mini plus of 0.1 percent. At 3.7 percent, January saw the strongest growth since mid-2020.
Since exports and industrial orders had already risen, the long-feared recession at the beginning of the year is becoming increasingly unlikely. “After the cream month of January, another big increase, that’s fantastic,” commented the chief economist at Hauck Aufhäuser Lampe Privatbank, Alexander Krüger. “It looks like the industry has turned the corner.”
Although service providers continue to falter in view of customers suffering from high inflation, according to Commerzbank there are now even signs of “a noticeable increase” in gross domestic product for the first quarter that has just ended. “However, this should only be an interim high,” said Commerzbank economist Ralph Solveen.
“Because in the second half of the year, the global interest rate hikes by the central banks are likely to have an increasing impact.” The leading economic research institutes expect growth of 0.1 percent for January to March, after a minus of 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter had.
“bottomed out”
Industry alone produced 2.4 percent more in February than in the previous month. “The automotive industry had a particularly large share in the significant increase in overall production,” emphasized the statistical office.
That’s what economists say about the production increase
The largest industrial sector in Germany increased its output by 7.6 percent compared to January. Production also increased in the energy-intensive branches of industry, by 1.9 percent. This indicates “that the energy crisis may have bottomed out,” stressed the Federal Ministry of Economics. The construction industry reported an increase of 1.5 percent. Energy suppliers, on the other hand, reduced their generation by 1.1 percent.
The order books in industry filled up more strongly in February than they have in over a year and a half. New business grew by 4.8 percent on the previous month and thus for the third time in a row.
At the same time, the material bottlenecks in industry are increasingly disappearing. In March, 41.6 percent of the companies still reported problems, after 45.4 percent in February, as the Ifo Institute found out.
This is the sixth decline in a row and the lowest value for around two years. For comparison: In March 2022, the proportion was still more than 80 percent. “This decline will have a positive impact on industrial production in the coming months,” said Klaus Wohlrabe, head of Ifo surveys
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