German industrial production fell in April after rising in March as output decreased in all major industries except construction.
Industrial production declined 1.0% in April from March after price, seasonal and calendar adjustments, falling short of Econoday's consensus estimate of a 0.2% increase. Production in March was revised higher to 1.7% from the previous estimate of 1.0%, provisional data from the country's Federal Statistics Office showed.
Production of capital goods dropped 1.3%, consumer goods production was down 2.1% and production of intermediate goods decreased 2.0% from the previous month. Energy production fell 1.6% in April, while the construction industry reported a 3.3% month-on-month increase in production.
Excluding energy and construction, industrial production declined 1.7% from the prior month.
Industrial production increased 2.0% in April from a year earlier after an upwardly revised 3.8% year-over-year increase in March.
"Looking ahead, high capacity utilization and low inventories still argue in favor of a rebound of industrial activity," said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING Germany.
Germany's goods trade surplus narrowed to €19.4 billion in April from €21.6 billion in March, according to a separate release by the Federal Statistics Office on June 8.
"Not all is bad in this morning's macro data from Germany but the economy is clearly treading water and is not managing to shift up a gear," Brzeski said.
New orders in the German manufacturing sector fell for a fourth straight month in April, falling short of expectations of a rise and raising further doubts about the durability of the recovery by the eurozone's biggest economy.
