Federal Statistical Office reports sharp decline in pharmaceutical industry for June
Real, price-adjusted production in the manufacturing industry in Germany fell by 1.9 percent in June 2025 compared with the previous month, after seasonal and calendar adjustment. This was announced provisionally by the Federal Statistical Office (https://www.destatis.de) on Thursday. This is the lowest level since May 2020, when production slumped as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Low level
According to the data, production fell by one percent in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the previous quarter, thus also falling to its lowest level since the first half of 2020. In May 2025, production fell slightly by 0.1 percent (preliminary figure: plus 1.2 percent) compared with April 2025 after revision of the preliminary results.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the unusually high revision is due to corrections reported by companies in the automotive industry. Compared with the same month last year, June 2024, production in June 2025 was 3.6 percent lower after adjustment for calendar effects.
Decline in mechanical engineering
The negative production trend in June is primarily attributable to declines in mechanical engineering (down 5.3 percent from the previous month, adjusted for calendar and seasonal effects), the pharmaceutical industry (down 11 percent), and the food industry (down 6.3 percent). By contrast, growth in energy production (up 3.1 percent) had a positive effect.
Industrial production (manufacturing excluding energy and construction) fell by 2.8 percent in June compared with May, after seasonal and calendar adjustment. The production of consumer goods fell by 5.6 percent, capital goods by 3.2 percent and intermediate goods by 0.6 percent. Compared with June 2024, industrial production fell by 4.7 percent after adjustment for calendar effects.
Energy-intensive industries
In the energy-intensive industries, production fell by 2.2 percent in June compared with May after seasonal and calendar adjustment. In a three-month comparison, production in energy-intensive industries was 2.3 percent lower in the second quarter of 2025 than in the first quarter of 2025. Compared with June 2024, energy-intensive production was down 7.4 percent after adjustment for calendar effects.
An analysis of the production index for energy-intensive industries (https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Industrie-Verarbeitendes-Gewerbe/produktionsindex-energieintensive-branchen.html) can be found on the “Industry, manufacturing” page (https://www.destatis.de/DE/Themen/Branchen-Unternehmen/Industrie-Verarbeitendes-Gewerbe/_inhalt.html) on the website of the Federal Statistical Office.
