France: Industrial output drops at sharpest pace in nearly a year in February
Industrial output declined 4.7% in month-on-month seasonally-adjusted terms in February, which contrasted January’s 3.2% increase and marked the sharpest drop since April 2020. Looking at the details of the release, February’s downturn was largely driven by a fall in manufacturing output. Furthermore, production also contracted in both the mining and quarrying, and energy sub-sectors.
On an annual basis, industrial output plummeted 6.6% in February, which was significantly below January’s 0.2% fall. Moreover, the trend pointed down, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 10.9% in February, down from January’s minus 10.5%.