German industrial production is lagging behind the country's recovery

German industrial production figures are just out for February - output rose by 0.2% from January alone, but it's now down 0.3% on the same month last year.

There was a big revision to January's data. Initially Germany had said production rose 0.6% from December, but it actually fell 0.4%.

Germany's consumer figures at the moment are coming in strong - retail sales recently rose at the fastest pace in a a decade - but there's no sign of a similar boom in the industry of Europe's largest economy.

We also just got figures on Germany's balance of trade in February, with the surplus a little smaller than analysts expected.

Germany exported €19.7 billion more than it imported during February, lower than the €20 billion forecast.

Imports rose by 1.8% over the year, a little faster than exports at 1.5%, which is probably good news for the unbalanced German economy.