Press release No. 204 of 8 June 2020

April 2020 (provisional): production in industry
-17.9% on the previous month (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-25.3% on the same month a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)

March 2020 (revised): production in industry
-8.9% on the previous month (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-11.3% on the same month a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)

WIESBADEN – The production in Germany decreased significantly again in April 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic, after a marked decrease had been observed already in March. In April 2020, production in industry was down by 17.9% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted basis according to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The calendar adjusted year-on-year decrease was as much as 25.3%. This is the largest decline since the beginning of the time series in January 1991.

74.6 % decline in the automotive industry

In April 2020, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 22.1%. Within industry, the production of intermediate goods decreased by 13.8% and the production of consumer goods by 8.7%. The production of capital goods showed a decrease by 35.3%. A sharp drop was recorded by the automotive industry (-74.6%). Outside industry, energy production was down by 7.2% in April 2020 and the production in construction decreased by 4.1%.

In March 2020, the corrected figure shows the production in industry a decrease of 8.9% from (primary -9.2%) from February 2020.

The rates of change refer to the production index for industry (2015 = 100). Seasonal and calendar adjustment was made using the X-13 JDemetra+ method.

Basic data and long time series on the production index in industry are also available through the table "Index of production in manufacturing" (42153-0001) in the GENESIS-Online database.

Crisis Monitor allows comparison between corona crisis and and financial and economic crisis

The production index is also part of the „Crisis Monitor“ (www.destatis.de/krisenmonitor), which is used by the Federal Statistical Office to compare the development of major short-term indicators between the corona crisis and the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009. The “Crisis Monitor” complements the “Corona statistics“ webpage, which has provided statistical information on the economic and social consequences of the corona pandemic since early April.