German Industrial Production Recovers In January

(RTTNews) - Germany's industrial production rebounded at a faster than expected pace in January driven by intermediate and consumer goods output, figures from Destatis showed on Friday.

Industrial production posted a monthly growth of 1.0 percent, in contrast to the 2.0 percent fall in December. Output was expected to climb 0.6 percent.

Excluding energy and construction, industrial output gained 1.1 percent from December. Production of intermediate goods gained 4.4 percent and consumer goods output climbed 4.0 percent. Meanwhile, capital goods output decreased 2.1 percent.

The chemical industry, food industry and machine maintenance and assembly had a positive influence, while the auto industry made a notable negative contribution.

Data showed that energy production recorded a decline of 3.7 percent in January. On the other hand, construction output increased 2.7 percent compared to the previous month.

Factory orders data released on Thursday showed that there was a sharp 11.3 percent decline in incoming orders, which was in contrast to the 12.0 percent increase in December.

The ifo Institute on Wednesday downgraded Germany's growth projection for this year to 0.2 percent from 0.9 percent. The think tank said the largest euro area economy is paralyzed as higher interest rates and fiscal policies hurt recovery.

ING economist Carsten Brzeski said the highly volatile data at the turn of the year make it harder to derive a clear trend.

Even if there is some vague light at the end of what increasingly looks like a very long tunnel, an imminent rebound still looks unlikely, the economist added.