German industrial output fell more than expected in December

A steel worker of ThyssenKrupp stands amid sparks of raw iron coming from a blast furnace at a ThyssenKrupp steel factory in Duisburg, western Germany, Nov 14, 2022. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File photo

German industrial production fell more than expected in December, the federal statistics office said on Wednesday, marking the seventh monthly decline in a row.

Industrial production fell in December by 1.6 percent compared with the previous month. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.4-percent fall.

In energy-intensive industries, production fell by 5.8 percent in December on the month, the office said.

There were particularly strong declines in the important chemical industry, with production falling by 7.6 percent on the month, and in construction, with a 3.4 percent decline. Production also fell in many other sectors, albeit less sharply, the statistics office said.

However, the 4 percent increase in production in the automotive industry had a positive effect on the overall result.

In the last quarter of the year, a less volatile figure, industrial production fell 1.8 percent compared to the three months before.

In November, production fell by 0.2 percent compared to October, after the preliminary results were revised up from a 0.7 percent drop.

In 2023 as a whole, production was 1.5 percent lower than in 2022 after calendar adjustment.

German industrial orders unexpectedly jumped by 8.9 percent 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.