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 debt-crisis of 2010-2012 which flowed from it, euro-zone industrial production recovered and then reached a peak four years later in early-2016. Growth rates then slowed through the rest of 2016, accelerated during 2017 and then began another steady and persistent slowdown which has lasted through to the present.
According to the latest figures released by Eurostat, euro-zone industrial production increased by a seasonally-adjusted 2.3% in January, higher than the 1.2% increase which had been expected and also a marked turnaround from December’s -1.8%. On an annual basis, seasonally-adjusted growth in industrial production improved from December’s revised rate of -3.3% to -2.1%* in January.
Industrial production growth rates expanded in all the euro-zone’s four largest economies. Industrial production increased by 2.7% in Germany, in France by 1.2%, in Spain by 0.1% and by 3.7% in Italy.