Germany: Industrial output dives in March
On a seasonally-adjusted monthly basis, industrial production dived 3.9% in March (February: +0.1% mom). The headline drop was the worst print since April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. The marked contraction reflected significant drops in the output of capital goods, intermediate goods and consumer goods. Furthermore, energy production nosedived, influenced by changes from wind power. More positively, construction production rose.
Industrial output fell 3.5% year-on-year in working-day adjusted terms in March (February: +3.1% yoy). This is due to supply-chain bottlenecks amid Covid-19 restrictions and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, the trend pointed down, with the annual average growth of industrial production coming in at 2.3% in March, from February’s 4.9% reading.