Industrial production dropped 1.4% month-on-month in June, which was the biggest fall since August, when it declined 2.8%.
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“The trend in orders is clearly pointing upwards”, the ministry said, but noted that bulk orders were above average in June.
He noted that the impact of developments in Greece and China had not weighed on German factory orders but warned that Europe’s strongest economy was not immune to uncertainty, with orders from Germany itself falling 2.0 percent in June.
UniCredit also lowered its forecast for the second quarter GDP figure to be released next Friday to 0.4 per cent, from 0.5 per cent, although it called the output drop “a statistical fluke”. It was expected to rise 0.3%. Rees said he is sticking to an estimate that quarter-on-quarter growth accelerated to 0.5 per cent after the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the January-March period.
In another positive sign, a survey published this week showed manufacturing activity rose slightly in July as new contracts piled in.
Some industrial companies have made upbeat announcements.
Food-processing technology maker GEA’s orders dropped by 9 percent on an organic basis in the second quarter.
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But truck maker MAN SE cut its profit and sales expectations for this year because of a plunge in Brazilian demand.
