Enlarge image
Hall of a forklift manufacturer
Photo: Christian Charisius / dpa
After a weak development in the first half of the year, German industry was able to expand its production in the summer.
The Federal Statistical Office announced that it rose by 1.0 percent in July compared to the previous month.
Because supply chains are affected by Corona restrictions, many companies lack important raw materials and intermediate products.
Accordingly, production is still well below the pre-pandemic level.
At the start of the second half of the year, the production of goods in industry rose by 1.3 percent from June to July.
Above all, capital goods such as machines were produced more.
"Even if the delivery bottlenecks for semiconductors, which recently slowed production, are likely to persist for a while, the figures suggest that the low point may now have been overcome," wrote the Federal Ministry of Economics.
Stock market professionals lower expectations
The industry has full order books.
There was even a record number of incoming orders in July.
In many cases, however, the orders cannot be processed quickly due to acute bottlenecks in preliminary products.
Steel and timber are also in short supply, and prices are rising accordingly.
In a survey by the Munich Ifo Institute, 70 percent of industrial companies said that bottlenecks are causing them to create.
But the companies are still confident that they will be able to increase their production.
"Apparently the companies are hoping that the supply bottlenecks for preliminary products will slowly resolve in the coming months," said Ifo expert Klaus Wohlrabe.
Economists such as Ralph Solveen from Commerzbank are more skeptical.
An end to the downward trend is unlikely.
Rather, the lack of preliminary products should continue to have a negative impact, said Solveen.
Stock market professionals also lowered their expectations of the economic upturn in Germany for the fourth month in a row in September.
The corresponding barometer of the Mannheim Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) fell again and more than expected.
"The expected extent and the dynamics of the improvement have since decreased considerably," said ZEW President Achim Wambach.
Some institutes and banks want to lower their growth forecasts for the German economy this year.
The Institute for Macroeconomics and Business Cycle Research (IMK), for example, announced that it would "noticeably" correct its forecast of 4.5 percent downwards.
"On the other hand, this improves the growth prospects for 2022, because the industry should then process the orders with delivery problems resolving," said the scientific director of the IMK, Sebastian Dullien.
Eurozone with higher growth than expected
There was good news from the European statistical office Eurostat.
Because the economy of the euro zone emerged from the corona crisis at a faster pace than expected.
The gross domestic product (GDP) rose from April to June compared to the previous quarter by 2.2 percent, as reported by Eurostat.
In an earlier estimate, there was talk of two percent.
At the beginning of the year, the economy had shrunk by 0.3 percent - at the end of 2020 by as much as 0.4 percent.
The EU Commission is forecasting an increase of 4.8 percent in GDP in the eurozone for the current year.
Positive economic figures also came from China.
Strong foreign demand gave the Chinese economy an unexpectedly strong boost in August.
Exports grew by 25.6 percent compared to the same month last year, according to the customs authorities in Beijing.
Exports to South Korea, Australia and the European Union grew particularly strongly.
One reason for this is that retailers in industrialized countries are already preparing for the Christmas business.
However, German exporters could not benefit as much from the upswing in China's foreign trade.
German exports to China only rose by 5.6 percent, while imports from China rose by 29.2 percent.
mmq / Reuters / dpa
