Press release No. 049 of 7 February 2025

Production in industry
December 2024 (in real terms, provisional):
-2.4% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-3.1% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

November 2024 (in real terms, revised):
+1.3% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-2.8% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

2024 (in real terms, provisional)
-4.5% on a year earlier (calendar adjusted) 

WIESBADEN – Production in industry in real terms (price adjusted) was down 2.4% in December 2024 month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment, according to provisional data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). It therefore dropped to the lowest level since May 2020. The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that production was 0.9% lower in the period from October to December 2024 than in the previous three months. After revision of the provisional results, production increased by 1.3% in November 2024 compared with October 2024 (provisional figure: +1.5%). Compared with December 2023, production was down 3.1% in December 2024 after adjustment for calendar effects. In 2024 as a whole, production was 4.5% lower than in 2023 on a calendar adjusted basis.

Significant drop in production in the automotive industry in December 2024

The negative development of production in December 2024 was mainly attributable to the decrease seen in the automotive industry (-10.0% on the previous month, seasonally and calendar adjusted). The drop in production observed in machine maintenance and assembly (-10.5%) also negatively impacted the overall result. By contrast, production growth in the pharmaceutical industry (+11.6%) had a positive impact on the result. 

In December 2024, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down 3.3% from November 2024 after seasonal and calendar adjustment. The production of capital goods fell by 4.7% and the production of intermediate goods dropped by 3.3%. The production of consumer goods, however, rose by 0.9%. Outside industry, energy production in December 2024 was up 1.1% compared with the previous month. Production in construction remained on the level of the previous month (0.0%). 

Compared with December 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction in December 2024 dropped by 4.1% on a calendar adjusted basis. 

Production down in energy-intensive industrial branches in December 2024

Production in energy-intensive industrial branches declined by 3.1% in December 2024 from November 2024, after elimination of seasonal and calendar effects. The three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in energy-intensive industrial branches was 2.6% lower in the period from October to December 2024 than in the previous three months. Adjusted for calendar effects, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was up 2.0% in December 2024 compared with December 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. 

2024: Substantial decreases in the manufacture of machinery and equipment and in the automotive industry

In 2024 as a whole, production in industry was 4.5% lower than in the previous year, on a calendar adjusted basis. The downward trend observed since the spring of 2023 therefore continued in the course of 2024. In December 2024, production dropped to the lowest level since the slump of May 2020 at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, on a seasonally and calendar adjusted basis. 

Production in industry excluding energy and construction in 2024 was down 4.9% compared with the previous year. Energy production in 2024 dropped by 3.2% after having registered a 14.1% decline in 2023. The construction industry also recorded a 3.2% decrease in production in 2024. This is attributable to the negative development in building completion (-3.4%), which is an important sector, and in building construction (-6.9%), whereas civil engineering registered a 2.1% increase in production. 

In the capital goods sector, production in 2024 was 5.6% lower than in the previous year. This decline is mainly due to the development of production in the automotive industry (-7.2% on the previous year, calendar adjusted) and in the manufacture of machinery and equipment (‑8.1%). By contrast, production in the manufacture of other transport equipment (aircraft, ships, trains, military vehicles; +6.5%) showed a positive trend. Production in this less important sector benefitted from the high volume of large-scale orders in recent years. 

In the intermediate goods sector, production in 2024 was down 5.0% compared with the previous year. Here, the decrease in production was mainly attributable to the development in the manufacture of electrical equipment (-14.6%) and the manufacture of fabricated metal products (-6.4%). 

Production in energy-intensive industrial branches in 2024 was slightly higher (+0.6%) than in the previous year, following year-on-year decreases of 11.2% in 2023 and 5.7% in 2022.

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 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.