Germany DIHK business situation, manufacturing
Germany DIHK business situation, manufacturing stood at -7 in May 2026, according to German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK). It is one of the indicators in the DIHK Business Survey table (Value · Monthly), with a complete series running from Sep 2003 to May 2026. The complete series with an interactive chart, free to download.
This indicator in the DIHK Business Survey table
| Indicator | 05-2026 | 01-2026 | 09-2025 | 05-2025 | 01-2025 | 09-2024 | 05-2024 | 01-2024 | 09-2023 | 05-2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing (excluding construction)10 | -7 | -10 | -15 | -11 | -14 | -16 | -5 | -1 | 0 | 19 | |
| Intermediate goods producers | -13 | -18 | -25 | -21 | -26 | -30 | -16 | -14 | -13 | 12 | |
| Capital goods producers | -3 | -6 | -11 | -6 | -11 | -11 | 2 | 13 | 13 | 35 |
Understanding germany DIHK business situation, manufacturing
Appraisals of current trading conditions exclusively from industrial producers, acting as the primary gauge of factory-sector health within the wider survey. The scope isolates the production of tangible goods, stripping out the distinct dynamics of construction, retail, and services. Within this category, responses represent everything from raw material processing to final assembly lines. The resulting balance represents the net sentiment among factory managers regarding their order books, capacity utilisation, and immediate revenue streams. It serves as the parent category for specific industrial branches detailed elsewhere in the dataset.
Tracking the month-on-month trajectory of this manufacturing gauge offers early signals regarding industrial output and export performance. Because production processes often involve long lead times, the current situation assessment tends to lag behind the separate expectations component of the survey. Users must handle seasonal variations carefully; factory shutdowns during summer or holidays can briefly distort raw sentiment. Month-to-month changes provide the clearest view of cyclical shifts, while contrasting this soft data against official industrial production figures can reveal whether positive sentiment is driven by actual output expansion or merely pricing power improvements.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is construction excluded from the manufacturing balance?
- Construction operates on distinct business cycles driven by real estate markets and infrastructure spending, separate from the standard industrial goods cycle.
- Do export-oriented firms influence this metric more than domestic ones?
- The balance reflects the composition of the sector, meaning the heavy export reliance of the industrial base naturally weights the overall sentiment toward international demand conditions.
- Are subsequent revisions common for the manufacturing index?
- Survey balances of this type are typically published as final figures upon release, without the routine backward revisions seen in official production volume data.