German industrial output rebounds

German industrial production rose in April, pushed up by the EU export power's manufacturing and energy sectors, after two months of decline, federal statistics office Destatis said Tuesday.

Output was up a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent on March, slightly above the 0.6 percent rise that had been forecast by financial services provider Factset.

"The mood in manufacturing-sector companies has brightened somewhat in recent months," said the economy ministry in a separate statement.

"The industrial sector is likely to continue its moderate recovery after a period of slight weakness related to foreign trade in the second half of 2015."

Production in Europe's biggest economy rebounded in manufacturing and energy, rising by 1.1 percent in both sectors, but fell by 1.7 percent in construction in April.

Destatis revised its production fall for March to 1.1 percent from the 1.3 percent decline it reported earlier.

The German economy grew 0.7 percent in the first quarter, but the pace will slow in the second quarter, according to economists.

The German government expects GDP growth of 1.7 percent for the year as a whole and 1.5 percent for 2017.

Unicredit said the latest data "confirm that German export-dependent manufacturing companies have been on a solid footing".

"The decline in construction activity is exclusively a story about weather-related technicalities which have been clouding extremely bright fundamentals."

Unicredit added that it is sticking to its own German GDP growth forecast of 1.8 percent for 2016.

However, Capital Economics said April's industrial production rise "only partially reversed the previous month's fall and suggests that the strong growth of industrial and overall economic activity in the first quarter will not be repeated in the second quarter".

Factoring in other economic indicators, it said that "it seems likely that German GDP growth slowed significantly in Q2, supporting our expectation of moderate growth of around 1.5 percent in 2016 as a whole".