Press release No. 182 of 10 May 2024

Production in industry
March 2024 (in real terms, provisional):
-0.4% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-3.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

February 2024 (in real terms, revised):
+1.7% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-5.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

WIESBADEN – Production in industry in real terms (price adjusted) was down 0.4% in March 2024 month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment, according to provisional figures of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that production was 1.0% higher in the period from January to March 2024 than in the previous three months. After revision of the provisional results, production increased by 1.7% in February 2024 compared with January 2024 (provisional figure: +2.1%). Compared with March 2023, production was 3.3% lower in March 2024 after adjustment for calendar effects.

In March 2024, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down 0.4% from February 2024 after seasonal and calendar adjustment. By contrast, the production of capital goods rose by 0.1%. The production of consumer goods, however, decreased by 1.4% and that of intermediate goods by 0.6%. Outside industry, a 4.2% decrease in energy production was observed in March 2024. Production in construction grew by 1.0% from the previous month. Compared with March 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction in March 2024 was down 3.4% after calendar adjustment.

Production unchanged in energy-intensive industrial branches

Production in energy-intensive industrial branches remained unchanged (0.0%) in March 2024 from February 2024, after elimination of seasonal and calendar effects. The three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in these industrial branches was 4.8% higher in the period from January to March 2024 than in the previous three months. Adjusted for calendar effects, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was up 2.3% in March 2024 compared with March 2023. An analysis on 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 quarter. These reflect short-term economic trends. Year-on-year comparisons of calendar adjusted results enable long-term comparisons of levels and are not influenced by seasonal fluctuations or calendar effects. The results of month-on-month, quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year comparisons may differ considerably due to 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 2021 is used as the basis of the index and set to 100 index points (2021 = 100). The X13 JDemetra+ method was used for calendar and seasonal adjustment.

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 2021, they collectively accounted for 77% of total industrial energy consumption. Their proportion of industrial gross value added stood at 17%. In 2021, just under one million people (929,599) were employed in the 6,986 industrial establishments of these branches in Germany.

For better readability, this press release uses a short form for the names of some economic branches which differs from the designations in the "Classification of Economic Activities (2008 edition)". An overview of these short forms (only in German) is provided on the "Industry, manufacturing" page on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.

More information:

Basic data and long time series on the production index in industry can be found in the table Indices of production in manufacturing (42153-0001) in the GENESIS-Online database. It contains the time series of the production index for energy-intensive industrial branches 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 on Dashboard Germany at 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 the economy, finance, health and mobility. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor tool (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in German) for real-time economic monitoring.