Press release No. 268 of 7 July 2023
Production in industry
May 2023 (in real terms, provisional):
-0.2% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+0.7% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
April 2023 (in real terms, revised)
+0.3% on the previous month (seasonally and calendar adjusted)
+1.7% on the same month a year earlier (calendar adjusted)
WIESBADEN – Production in industry in real terms (price adjusted) was down 0.2% in May 2023 month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment, according to provisional data provided by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis). Production still saw a 0.3% increase in April 2023 compared with March 2023 after provisional data had been revised (provisional figure also +0.3%). The less volatile three-month on three-month comparison showed that production was 0.2% higher in the period from March to May than in the previous three months.
Within industry, the development of production varied greatly between the individual economic sectors. The manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products and pharmaceutical preparations had a particularly negative impact on overall performance in May 2023 (-13.1% month on month after seasonal and calendar adjustment). The decline in energy production (-7.0%) had a clearly negative effect on overall performance as well. By contrast, the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi trailers (+4.9%) had a positive impact on overall performance.
In May 2023, production in industry excluding energy and construction was up 0.2% from April 2023 after seasonal and calendar adjustment. The production of capital goods increased by 1.3%. The production of consumer goods decreased by 1.2% and that of intermediate goods by 0.5%. Outside of industry, production in construction dropped by 0.4%.
Compared with May 2022, production in industry was up 0.7% in May 2023 after adjustment for calendar effects. Production in industry excluding energy and construction increased by 2.2% over the same period.
Production down in energy-intensive industrial branches
Production in energy-intensive industrial branches declined by 1.4% in May 2023 from April 2023, after elimination of seasonal and calendar effects. Compared with May 2022, production in energy-intensive industrial branches was down 12.4% in May 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.
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 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). 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 2020, they collectively 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 in industry can be found in the table Indizes der Produktion (42153-0001) in the GENESIS-Online database. It contains the time series of the production index for energy-intensive industrial branches (only in German) 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 (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 (Pulsmesser für die Wirtschaft) (only in German) tool for real-time economic monitoring.
