Germany’s industrial production decreased unexpectedly in May as the supply bottlenecks continued to weigh on the automotive sector, official data revealed Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Industrial production fell 0.3 percent month-on-month in May, the same pace of decline as seen in April, data from Destatis showed on Wednesday. Economists had forecast output to grow 0.5 percent after April’s initial estimate of -1 percent.<\/p>\n
On a yearly basis, industrial output growth moderated to 17.3 percent from 27.6 percent a month ago. <\/p>\n
Compared with February 2020, the month before restrictions were imposed due to the corona pandemic in Germany, production was 5.0 percent lower in seasonally and calendar adjusted terms.<\/p>\n
Excluding energy and construction, industrial production was down 0.5 percent. <\/p>\n
Within industry, consumer goods output showed an increase of 4.1 percent and the production of intermediate goods was up 0.6 percent. Meanwhile, capital goods output dropped 3.4 percent. <\/p>\n
Outside industry, energy production dropped 2.1 percent in May, while construction output climbed 1.3 percent. <\/p>\n