Germany's industrial production grew at a faster-than-expected pace in May, largely driven by energy and capital goods output.
Industrial production grew 1.2 percent month-on-month in May, faster than the revised 0.7 percent increase seen in April, Destatis reported Friday. Production has increased over the past five months.
Output was forecast to grow slightly by 0.2 percent in May. This was the largest growth since February, when output climbed 1.5 percent.
Excluding energy and construction, industrial output grew 1.3 percent. Energy production advanced 2.9 percent in May, while output fell 1 percent in construction.
Among other sectors, capital goods output rose 2.6 percent and the production of consumer goods by 1.4 percent. Meanwhile, the production of intermediate goods showed a decrease of 0.2 percent.
On a yearly basis, growth in production accelerated more-than-expected to 5 percent in May from 2.8 percent in April. Economists had forecast 4 percent annual growth.
The strong dynamism of order intake at the end of 2016 has been translated into brisk expansion of output since the beginning of the year, the economy ministry said.
The ministry added that the revival stretches to other branches of the industrial sector. Overall, industrial activity gained momentum and broadened this year.
Data released on Thursday showed that factory orders recovered in May on foreign demand. Orders had increased 1 percent from the previous month.
German economy will continue to power ahead, Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING-diba, said.
"Today's data confirm that Germany's industry has finally started to catch up with buoyant sentiment indicators," Brzeski said. "The current eu(ro)phoria can live on."
by RTT Staff Writer
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