German Industrial Output Logs 0.1% Fall; Exports Rise

(RTTNews) - Germany's industrial production registered a marginal fall on falling construction output, while growth in both exports and imports accelerated more than expected, official data revealed on Friday.

Industrial output edged down 0.1 percent on a monthly basis in April, Destatis said Friday. This follows a 0.4 percent drop in March. Although the pace of decrease softened from March, the fall came in contrast to economists' forecast of 0.3 percent gain.

Excluding energy and construction, production in industry moved up 0.2 percent.

The production of capital goods and consumer goods gained 0.8 percent each. On the other hand, intermediate goods output dropped 0.9 percent.

Energy production logged a monthly increase of 1.6 percent. Meanwhile, there was a 2.1 percent drop in construction output.

Year-on-year, industrial production registered a decline of 3.9 percent after easing 4.3 percent in March, data showed.

Another report from Destatis showed that exports grew at a faster pace of 1.6 percent on a monthly basis, following March's revised 1.1 percent increase. Shipments were forecast to grow 1.1 percent.

At the same time, imports growth advanced to 2.0 percent from 0.5 percent in March. The rate also exceeded economists' forecast of 0.6 percent.

As a result, the trade surplus fell slightly to EUR 22.1 billion from EUR 22.2 billion in the previous month.

Year-on-year, exports were up 12.3 percent, in contrast to the 8.1 percent fall in March. Likewise, imports advanced 6.6 percent, reversing 9.3 percent fall.

The unadjusted trade surplus totaled EUR 23.6 billion compared to a EUR 15.3 billion surplus in the same period last year.