German industrial production falls at alarming pace in September
The Eurozone´s industrial powerhouse ground to a halt in September as output of consumer and capital goods dropped sharply, with one research house describing the numbers as "alarmingly poor".
German industrial output declined by 1.1% month-on-month on a seasonally and working day-adjusted basis, according to the Federal Office of Statistics.
The previous month´s print was revised higher to show a drop of 0.6% over the month, up from a preliminary estimate of -1.2%.
Versus August, factory production was weakest in the consumer (-3.2%) and capital goods (-1.4%) segments. Separately, energy output edged higher by 0.3% while that of the construction sector declined by 0.9%.
Industrial output declined by 1.4% year-on-year once the contributions from energy and construction are stripped out.
Headline output fell at a 0.2% year-on-year clip, after a print of 2.7% in the month before.
Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics described Friday´s data as "alarmingly poor".
"The poor September data indicate industrial output likely fell 0.2% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter, following a 0.2% rise in the second quarter, further increasing downside risks for the third quarter GDP release next week, but final revisions can still change this downbeat estimate."
Andreas Rees at Unicredit was rather less worried,"the latest data do not herald a fundamental turnaround in the German economy. It is a bump in the road and nothing more as flagged by robust business sentiment recently," he said in a research note e-mailed to clients.