(News Bulletin 247) – German industrial production rose more than expected in January, driven by the electronics and chemicals sectors, data released on Wednesday show.

Production of goods made in Germany increased by 3.5% in seasonally adjusted data, after falling by 2.4% (figure revised against -3.1% in preliminary data) in December, according to the figures. from the Federal Statistical Office.

The consensus was counting on a more limited increase of around 1.4% for the month of January.

Destatis specifies that the statistics were driven by strong demand in the sectors of electronic equipment (+7.1%) and chemical products (+9.8%).

Despite this good start to the 2023 financial year, economists believe that the German economy is not yet out of the rut.

“Given the renewed bout of weakness in retail sales which reflects the continued fragility of consumption, we believe that the resistance of the industry will not be sufficient to avoid a recession”, warn analysts at Capital Economics.

Published this morning, retail sales in the country indeed came out down 0.3% in January compared to December, now trading 0.6% below their January 2020 levels, i.e. say before the outbreak of the pandemic.

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