Press release No. 088 of 8 March 2023
Production in industry, January 2023 (in real terms, provisional):
+3.5% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-1.6% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
December 2022 (in real terms, revised)
-2.4% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-3.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – In January 2023, production in industry in real terms was up by 3.5% on the previous month on a price, seasonally and calendar adjusted basis, according to provisional data of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). A decrease of 2.4% (provisional figure: -3.1%) was observed in December 2022 compared with the previous month. Compared with January 2022, calendar adjusted production was 1.6% lower.
In January 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up by 1.9% in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms, compared with December 2022. Compared with January 2022, calendar adjusted production in industry decreased by 0.9%.
The positive development of industrial production in January 2023 was driven in particular by strong growth in the manufacture of electronic equipment (seasonally and calendar-adjusted +7.1% on the previous month) and the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products (+9.8%). In contrast, strong negative development was observed in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (-5.2%) and the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations (-12.9%), two important sectors of German industry.
Within industry as a whole, the production of consumer goods went down by 1.8% in January 2023 from the previous month. The production of capital goods declined by 0.6%, while the production of intermediate goods increased by 6.9%. As regards intermediate goods, the positive development observed in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products and of electronic equipment contributed to the large increase.
Outside industry, energy production rose by 0.4% in January 2023 compared with the previous month. Production in construction recovered at the beginning of the year and increased by 12.6% month on month, following a large decrease at the end of 2022 (-7.5% in December 2022 month on month).
Significant increase in production in energy-intensive industrial branches
Production in the energy-intensive industrial branches rose by 6.8% in January 2023 compared with December 2022. Thus, production picked up also in this sector of industry, after a drop of 5.6% in December 2022 compared with the previous month. Despite the increase, energy-intensive production in January 2023 was 13.2% lower than in January 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).
