As with other countries’ measures of industrial production, Eurostat’s industrial production index measures the output and activity of industrial sectors in euro-zone countries in aggregate. Following a recession in 2009/2010 and the resultant European debt-crisis of 2010-2012, euro-zone industrial production began to recover until a peak was reached four years later in early-2016. Growth rates then slowed through the rest of 2016, accelerated during 2017 and then began a steady slowing which has lasted through to late-2019.
According to the latest figures released by Eurostat, euro-zone industrial production increased by a seasonally-adjusted 0.1% in September, higher than the 0.3% fall which had been expected but also noticeably lower than August’s +0.4%. On an annual basis, seasonally-adjusted growth in industrial production improved from August’s revised rate of -2.6% to -1.9%* in September.
ANZ Head of Australian Economics David Plank said, “The weakness was in intermediate goods production, suggesting that the pipeline of demand remains soft.”
Industrial production growth rates varied significantly from country to country but it contracted in three of the euro-zone’s four largest economies. German industrial production contracted by 1.0% while in Spain and Italy the comparable figures were -0.9% and -0.4% respectively. French industrial production expanded by +0.3%.