Industrial production in Germany decreased 17.9% in April from the previous month in seasonally adjusted terms, according to provisional data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

Likewise, the adjusted annual decrease in German industrial production was 25.3%. This is the largest decrease since the series began in January 1991.

Production index for the industry

Starting in late April, the first restrictions have been relaxed in Europe, but also in the United States, meaning that economic activity could gradually restart in some areas.

Production in Germany decreased significantly again in April 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, after a marked decrease that had already been observed in March.

In April 2020, production in the industry, excluding energy and construction, decreased 22.1%. Within the industry, the production of intermediate goods decreased by 13.8% and the production of consumer goods by 8.7 percent.

The production of capital goods showed a decrease of 35.3%. The automotive industry registered a sharp drop (-74.6 percent).

Finally, energy production decreased 7.2% in March 2020 and construction production decreased 4.1 percent.

Industrial production

In March 2020, the corrected figure shows that production in the industry fell 8.9% from since February 2020.

The German economy will remain firmly under the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in the second quarter.

According to the German central bank, economic output is likely to be significantly lower still than the already depressed first quarter average.

This is mainly due to the fact that the containment measures will have an impact for a considerably longer period than in the first quarter, when they only mainly affected the second half of March.

Despite the relaxation that has begun, social and economic life in Germany is still a long way from a situation that previously would have been considered normal, including industrial production.