Press release No. 141 of 6 April 2023
Production in industry, February 2023 (in real terms, provisional):
+2.0% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+0.6% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
January 2023 (in real terms, revised)
+3.7% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-1.6% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – In February 2023, production in industry in real terms was up by 2.0% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, according to provisional data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Revision of the provisional data showed an increase of 3.7% (provisional figure: +3.5%) in January 2023 compared with the previous month. Therefore, the adjusted index of production since December 2022 rose by 5.8%, which more than compensated the significant decline in December 2022 (-2.4%). Compared with February 2022, calendar adjusted production in February 2023 was 0.6% higher.
Most of the economic sectors demonstrated a positive development in production in February 2023. The manufacture of motor vehicles and parts thereof, Germany’s largest industrial sector, accounted for a particularly large share of the significant increase in total production (seasonally and calendar adjusted +7.6% on the previous month). Large parts of the construction industry, which increased its production by 1.5%, also shaped the positive result.
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%.
Looking at the industry as a whole, there was an increase across all major groups of the economy: the production of capital goods increased by 3.4%, the production of intermediate goods by 1.8% and the production of consumer goods by 1.4% in February 2023 compared with the previous month.
In contrast to industry and construction, energy production did not increase its output in February 2023. It fell by 1.1% compared with the previous month.
Increase in production in energy-intensive industrial branches
Production in the energy-intensive industrial branches rose, too. However, this increase accounted only for 1.9% in February 2023 compared to January 2023 and is therefore significantly lower than industrial production as a whole. Despite this increase, production in energy-intensive industrial branches in February 2023 was 12.0% lower than in February 2022. An analysis of the Production index for energy-intensive industrial branches (only in german) is available on the “Industry, manufacturing” page of the Federal Statistical Office’s website.
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 of seasonally and calendar adjusted figures with those of the previous month or previous quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. Year-on-year comparisons of calendar adjusted results permit long-term comparisons of levels and are not influenced by seasonal fluctuations and calendar effects. The results of month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons may differ considerably because of the Covid-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine.
The rates of change are based on the production index for industry. The average figure for 2015 is used as the basis of the index and set to 100 index points (2015 = 100). Seasonal and calendar adjustment is performed using the X13 JDemetra+ method.
The five branches referred to here as energy-intensive have particularly high energy demands in relation to their gross value added. In the reference year of 2020, they together accounted for 76% of total industrial energy consumption. Their proportion of industrial gross value added stood at 21%. In 2020, just under one million people (935,000) were employed in the more than 7,000 industrial establishments of these branches in Germany.
More information:
Basic data and long time series on the production index for industry can be found in the table Indizes der Produktion (42153-0001) in the GENESIS-Online database. The time series of the production index for energy-intensive industrial branches (only in german) is available there from 2005 onwards.
A dossier on the Short-term indicators page of the Federal Statistical Office's website provides an analysis of the relationship between material shortages, new orders, production and prices in industry. Detailed information on production in energy-intensive industrial branches (only in german) is available on the “Industry, manufacturing” page.
The production index is also available in the Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in german). This data portal of the Federal Statistical Office combines up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in german) tool, which can be used for real-time monitoring of the economic development.
Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the related sanctions are having an impact on many parts of the economy and society. Relevant data and information are provided on a special webpage (only in german) (www.destatis.de/ukraine).
