Industrial output contracts in June
Industrial output dropped in June, falling a seasonally-adjusted 0.7% over the previous month. The result contrasted May’s revised 1.4% increase (previously reported: +1.3% month-on-month). June’s fall was worse than the 0.4% decrease expected by market analysts and marked another weak print for the Eurozone economy, which has seen a series of soft economic data emerge in recent months. The downturn came on the back of contractions in production of capital, consumer and intermediate goods.
On an annual basis, industrial production growth inched down from May’s 2.6% to 2.5% in June. Meanwhile, annual average industrial production growth was stable at May’s 3.4%.
Among the Euro area economies for which data is available, Ireland saw the largest drop in industrial output in June, contracting 8.9% over the previous month. Estonia and the Netherlands also saw pronounced falls, greater than the regional average. Conversely, Finland and Portugal recorded the largest expansions, growing above 1.0%. Meanwhile, industrial output grew 0.6% in France and 0.5% in Italy but fell 0.6% in Germany and 0.7% in Spain.