Germany's industrial production expanded unexpectedly in February driven by the construction sector. Likewise, exports registered a surprise growth amid a fall in imports, official data revealed Friday.
Industrial output grew 2.2 percent month-on-month in February, the same pace of growth as seen in January, Destatis reported. This was the second consecutive growth in production.
Output was expected to drop 0.2 percent after rising by initially estimated 2.8 percent in January.
Exports climbed 0.8 percent month-on-month in February, in contrast to economists' forecast of 0.5 percent fall. Nonetheless, the increase was slower than January's 2.4 percent increase.
At the same time, imports slid 1.6 percent, reversing January's 2.8 percent increase. This was the first drop in five months. Economists had forecast a 0.2 percent rise.
As a result, the trade surplus increased to a seasonally adjusted EUR 21 billion from EUR 18.9 billion in January.
February's sharp rise in German industrial production and wider trade surplus help to reconcile the recent gap between the hard data and surveys, and imply that GDP rose sharply in the first quarter, Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
Excluding energy and construction, industrial output gained only 0.9 percent in February. Within industry, energy production grew 0.6 percent and construction output surged 13.6 percent, data showed.
The production of capital goods gained 1.1 percent and that of consumer goods by 1.4 percent. At the same time, production of intermediate goods showed an increase by 0.4 percent.
Industrial production climbed 2.5 percent in February from the prior year after easing 0.5 percent in January.
On a yearly basis, exports growth eased notably to 3.1 percent from 11.7 percent. Likewise, imports growth came in at 3.7 percent versus 11.4 percent a month ago.
Further, data showed that the current account surplus dropped slightly to EUR 20.4 billion in February from EUR 20.6 billion in the prior year.
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