Press release No. 219 of 7 June 2023
Production in industry, April 2023 (in real terms, provisional):
+0.3% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+1.6% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
March 2023 (in real terms, revised)
-2.1% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+2.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – In April 2023, production in industry in real terms was up by 0.3% 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 a decrease of 2.1% (provisional figure: -3.4%) in March 2023 compared with the previous month. In the three-month comparison, production in industry from February to April was 1.6% higher than in the previous three months.
Different developments within production in industry can be observed among the economic sectors.
Production in construction (seasonally and calendar adjusted +2.0% compared with the previous month) influenced the overall performance positively, after it decreased by 2.9% in March 2023. The manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations (+6.4%) had a positive impact on the overall performance, too. Yet, manufacture of motor vehicles and parts thereof (-0.8%) as well as engineering (-0.5%) had a negative influence on the overall performance.
In April 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up by 0.1% compared with March 2023 in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms. The production of consumer goods increased by 1.5% in April 2023 compared with the previous month. However, the production of capital goods decreased by 0.3% and the production of intermediate goods by 0.2%. Also, Energy production fell by 1.5% compared with the previous month.
Compared with April 2022, calendar adjusted production in industry in April 2023 was 1.6% higher. Production in industry excluding energy and construction increased by 2.7% compared with April 2022.
Decrease in production in energy-intensive industrial branches
In April 2023, production in the energy-intensive industrial branches was down by 1.1% compared to March 2023. Production in energy-intensive industrial branches in April 2023 was 12.9% lower than in April 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.
