Production in April 2024: -0.1% on the previous month (2024)

Press release No. 222 of 7 June 2024

Production in industry
April 2024 (in real terms, provisional):
-0.1% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-3.9% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

March 2024 (in real terms, revised):
-0.4% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
-4.3% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)

WIESBADEN – Production in industry in real terms (price adjusted) was down 0.1% in April 2024 month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment, according to provisional data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). A three-month on three-month comparison showed that production was 1.0% higher in the period from February 2024 to April 2024 than in the previous three months. The provisional result for March 2024 was confirmed (-0.4% from February 2024). Compared with April 2023, production was 3.9% lower in April 2024 after adjustment for calendar effects.

Production down in construction and markedly up in the automotive industry

Different developments could be observed in the economic sectors of industry in April 2024.The drop in production in construction by 2.1% from March 2024, after seasonal and calendar adjustment, negatively impacted the development of production in industry. By contrast, the automotive industry had a clearly positive impact, with production increasing by 4.2% month on month on a seasonal and calendar adjusted basis.

In April 2024, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up 0.2% from March 2024 after seasonal and calendar adjustment. The production of capital goods and consumer goods increased by 0.8% each. By contrast, the production of intermediate goods dropped by 0.9%. Outside industry, energy production rose by 1.6% in April 2024. Compared with April 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction was down 3.6% after calendar adjustment.

Production down in energy-intensive industrial branches

Production in energy-intensive industrial branches declined by 0.9% in April 2024 from March 2024, after elimination of seasonal and calendar effects. A three-month on three-month comparison showed that production in these industrial branches was 5.0% higher in the period from February to April 2024 than in the previous three-month period. Adjusted for calendar effects, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was up 1.4% in April 2024 compared with April 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.

Revision of earlier results

As of reporting month April 2024, the monthly production figures have been revised from reporting month January 2023 onwards. The price adjusted results of the production indices have been revised as of January 2021 since price indices have been updated.

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.