According to the report from the Eurostat, in February, eurozone industrial production increased by 0.8%, as expected, partially offsetting the January drop (-3%, revised from -3.2%). In annual terms, industrial production fell by 6.4% after a 6.6% decline in January (revised from -6.7%). Consensus estimates suggested a drop by 4.2%. Meanwhile, among the countries of the European Union, industrial production increased by 0.7% on a monthly basis and fell by 5.4% per annum.
Eurostat reported that the monthly change in the eurozone was caused by a rise in production of intermediate goods (+0.5%), capital goods (+1.2%) and durable consumer goods (+1.4%). The drop in production was recorded in the energy sector (-3.0%) and non-durable consumer goods (-0.9%).
Meanwhile, the decline in industrial production in the eurozone compared to February 2023 was caused by a drop in production of capital goods (-8.9%), non-durable consumer goods (-6.1%), durable consumer goods (-4.3%), energy (-3.6%) and intermediate goods (-2.7%).
As for the EU countries, the largest annual decreases were recorded in Ireland (-36.0%), Belgium (-12.7%) and Bulgaria (-8.4%). The highest increases were observed in Spain (+3.5%), Slovenia (+2.8%) and Denmark (+2.7%).