FRANKFURT -- Following a sharp increase in June, German industrial production fell more than expected in July, official data showed on Friday.
Industrial output contracted by 1.7% in July after expanding by 2% in June, the economy ministry calculated in preliminary data.
Analysts had been projecting a shallower decline of around 0.5% for July.
While construction output expanded by 2.7%, energy output fell by 2.9% and manufacturing output was down by 2.1%, the ministry said.
Taking the June and July combined to iron out short-term fluctuations, industrial output expanded by 0.5% compared with the preceding two months.
Already on Thursday, the ministry published a bigger-than-expected drop in industrial orders in July.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
