Press release No. 391 of 7 October 2020
Production in industry
August 2020 (provisional):
-0.2% on the previous month (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-9.6% on the same month a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)
July 2020 (revised):
+1.4% on the previous month (price, seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-10.0% on the same month a year earlier (price and calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – In August 2020, production in industry was down by 0.2% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted basis according to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Compared with August 2019, the decrease in calendar adjusted production in industry amounted to 9.6%.
The corona crisis has affected the development in manufacturing for several months now. Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany, new orders in July 2020 were 10.8 % lower in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.
In August 2020, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down by 0.7%. Within industry, the production of intermediate goods showed an increase by 3.3%. The production of consumer goods decreased by 1.3% and the production of capital goods by 3.6%. Outside industry, energy production was up by 6.7% in August 2020 and the production in construction decreased by 0.3%.
Production in the automotive industry - the largest branch of manufacturing - fell by 12.5% on the previous month in August, following an increase of 8.9% in July. This means that it was by just under 25% below the level of February 2020.
In July 2020, the corrected figure shows the production in industry an increase of 1.4% (primary +1.2%) from June 2020.
European data on industrial production
Results on industrial production in other EU countries are contained in the Eurostat’s database..
At present, data up to and including July are available for most of the countries. According to these data, industrial production in the EU increased by 4.1 % in July 2020 compared with the previous month. The strongest increases were reported for Portugal, Spain and Ireland (see Eurostat press release of 14 September 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.
Methodological notes:
The differing comparative periods must be taken into account in all press releases on short-term indicators. Short-term economic monitoring focuses on comparisons with the previous month or previous quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. A comparison with the previous year is intended to offer a long-term comparison of levels and is not subject to seasonal fluctuations. During the current coronavirus crisis, the strong decreases especially in March/April 2020 and the slowly emerging recovery have produced highly different results for the comparison with the previous month/previous quarter and the comparison with the previous year. Both of the two perspectives are important: what is the short-term economic development compared with the previous month/previous quarter and how far has the catching-up process gone compared with the previous year’s level? In order to provide also a direct comparison with the pre-crisis level, all press releases on short-term indicators available in seasonally adjusted form will from now on include a comparison with February 2020 or the 4th quarter of 2019.
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.
German EU--European Union Council Presidency
As of 1 July. the Federal Statistical Office has been responsible for organisingwill organise the meetings of the Council Working Party on Statistics to be held during Germany’s EU Council Presidency under the chairmanship of its President Dr. Georg Thiel. Information on our activities during the Presidency of the Council of the Germany’s EU is provided at destatis.de/eu2020. European statistics are available under „ Europe in figures“ on our website at www.destatis.de
