DPA
Production goes back in October
TheGerman Companies have surprisingly shut down their production in October. Industry, Construction and utilities together produced 0.5 percent less than in the previous month, as the Federal Ministry of Economics announced on Friday. Economists, however, had expected a plus of 0.3 percent. “Industrial production started weakly in the fourth quarter,” said the ministry.
One of the reasons for the decline is due to the weakeningcarmakers, The decline in the automotive industry by 0.5 percent suggest that the problems with the conversion to the new emissions test procedure “only gradually dissolve”. However, stronger new business in the auto industry signals that “the pace of German industry growth will pick up again in the course of the year-end quarter.”
The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) expressed disappointment about the numbers. “Production continues to develop weakly,” said DIHK expert Sophia Krietenbrink. “The industrial economy has cooled noticeably overall.” As a result, the entire economy lost momentum and even shrank by 0.2 percent in the summer quarter. This was the first decline in three and a half years. “The industrial production reflects the year so far spilled over long stretches,” said chief economist Thomas Gitzel VP Bank from Liechtenstein.
As the auto industry has to contend with the conversion to the new exhaust gas test method WLTP, many vehicle manufacturers recently throttled their production. Industrial production alone fell by 0.4 percent in October. The utilities reported a minus of 3.2 percent, the construction industry a decline of 0.3 percent. Orders from industry had risen by 0.3 percent, benefiting above all from strong demand from the eurozone countries.
RTR / akn