Industrial production in Germany dropped for a second consecutive month in February, official data showed Friday, a showing that increases the likelihood of Europe’s biggest economy having contracted in the first quarter. The Economy Ministry said that production was down 2% compared with the previous month. The unexpected decline followed a 1.6% drop in January. A bout of harsh winter weather that weighed on construction may have been a factor. The ministry said that increasing business confidence and increases in factory orders point to “a positive outlook for industrial activity in the coming months.” Germany’s economy grew 0.3% in last year’s fourth quarter compared with the previous three-month period. But with Friday’s data, “it is hard to see how the German economy could escape a contraction in the first quarter,” ING economist Carsten Brzeski wrote in a research note. That would take “an explosion of manufacturing […]