FRANKFURT — German industrial production stagnated in May, but the overall upward trend remains intact, the economy ministry said on Tuesday.
The ministry calculated that factory output remained unchanged in May compared to a month earlier, corrected for seasonal factors.
Analysts polled by financial services firm FactSet had penciled in a fractional increase of 0.1% following a rise of 0.6% in April.
Manufacturing output increased by 0.4% month-on-month, but energy output contracted by 3.1% and construction output fell by 0.5%.
Taking April and May combined to iron out short-term fluctuations, industrial output was 0.5% higher than the average for the first three months, the ministry said, adding that "the uptrend in the manufacturing sector is continuing.”
Data published Monday showed that German industrial orders, a key measure of demand for goods in Europe's top economy, slipped by 0.2% in May, shallower than analysts had expected.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2015
