The German federal statistics office Destatis, reported today that on the basis of provisional data, the manufacturing sector saw turnover rise in real terms adjusted for seasonal factors, 1.0% in January 2010 compared with December 2009. Domestic turnover increased by 1.8% and business with foreign customers was on the level of the preceding month. Meanwhile, the Economics Ministry announced today that German industrial output also increased in January despite severe weather.

In some places in Germany, average night temperature has been around minus 20 degrees Celsius. The arctic winter, the coldest since 1957, froze rivers and channels, and disrupted transport links to some islands in the Baltic Sea. Nevertheless, sales to Eurozone countries were 0.7% above preceding month’s level, while sales to other countries fell by 0.7%. For the first time since September 2008, in January 2010 real turnover in manufacturing surpassed the level of the previous year - - the total increase (adjusted for working-day variations) amounted to 2.6% compared with the result for January in the last year. Falls were observed in domestic sales (–1.1%), while turnover from business with foreign customers rose by 7.3%.

Among foreign transactions, sales to Eurozone countries increased by 2.4%, while turnover for other foreign countries ascended 12.0%.

Regarding the year 2009, the (working-day adjusted) turnover in manufacturing was 17.0% below the level of the same period of the previous year; the decline in domestic turnover registered -13.9% and in foreign turnover -20.3%.

Although, construction output fell 14.3% from December in a month of snow and disruption, a 0.6% seasonally adjusted monthly rise in production was driven by a strong energy sector and growing output of manufactured goods. It followed a revised 1% monthly drop in December.

"Production in the industrial sector improved slightly at the start of the year, but without a clear trend,"the ministry said.

Last Friday, the ministry issued data showing that manufacturing orders rose 4.3% in January from December.

When adjusted for the number of work days, production rose 2.2% in January compared with a year earlier, but fell 1.1% in unadjusted terms, the ministry said.