German industrial production posts better-than-expected jump in Feb

German industrial production reported a sharper than expected rise of 2% in February against the previous month, driven by vehicle manufacture, the federal statistical office said on Thursday.

Analysts had forecast a slight increase of 0.1%. The statistics office also revised January’s figure to a 3.7% increase, up from 3.5%. Year-on-year, industrial production rose 0.6% in February.

The adjusted index of production since December 2022 rose by 5.8%, which “more than compensated” the significant 2.4% decline in December 2022.

Most economic sectors expanded production in February 2023, but the manufacture of motor vehicles and parts, which is Germany’s largest industrial sector, accounted for a particularly large share of the significant increase in total production, up 7.6% on the previous month.

Large parts of the construction industry, which increased its production by 1.5%, also shaped the positive result, the data revealed.

In February 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up by 2.4% in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms, compared with January 2023. Compared with February 2022, calendar adjusted production in industry increased by 1.7%.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com