Press release No. 087 of 10 March 2025
Production in industry
January 2025 (in real terms, provisional):
+2.0% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-1.6% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
December 2024 (in real terms, revised):
-1.5% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-2.2% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – Production in industry in real terms (price adjusted) was up 2.0% in January 2025 month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment, according to provisional data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that the production in the period from November 2024 to January 2025 was at the level of the previous three months (0.0%). After revision of the provisional results, production decreased by 1.5% in December 2024 compared with November 2024 (provisional figure: -2.4%). Compared with January 2024, production was down 1.6% in January 2025 after adjustment for calendar effects.
Significant production growth in the automotive industry
The positive development of production in January 2025 was mainly attributable to the increase seen in the automotive industry (+6.4% on the previous month, seasonally and calendar adjusted). The increase in production observed in the food industry (+7.5%) and in machine maintenance and assembly (+15.6%) also has a positive impact on overall performance. By contrast, the decrease in production in the manufacture of fabricated metal products (-7.7%) had a negative effect.
In January 2025, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up 2.6% from December 2024 after seasonal and calendar adjustment, with intermediate goods production rising by 3.3%. The production of capital goods and the production of consumer goods both increased by 2.4%. Outside industry, energy production dropped by 0.5% in January 2025 compared with the previous month. By contrast, production in construction rose by 0.4%.
Compared with January 2024, production in industry excluding energy and construction in January 2025 was down 1.7% on a calendar adjusted basis.
Production up in energy-intensive industrial branches
Production in energy-intensive industrial branches increased by 3.4% in January 2025 from December 2024, after adjustment for seasonal and calendar effects. The three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in energy-intensive industrial branches in the period from November 2024 to January 2025 remained at the level of the previous three months (0.0%). Adjusted for calendar effects, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was up 2.1% in January 2025 compared with January 2024. 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 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 can also be found on the Economic Dashboard, which is part of Dashboard Germany (www.dashboard-deutschland.de) (only in German). In this data portal, the Federal Statistical Office brings together up-to-date indicators from official statistics producers and other data providers on the topics of the economy, finance, the labour market, construction, housing, energy and Ukraine. The portal also contains the Economic Pulse Monitor tool (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in German) for real-time economic monitoring.
