Japan: Industrial output grows at quickest pace since June 2022 in March
Industrial production expanded 3.8% month on month in seasonally adjusted terms in March (February: -0.6% mom). March’s figure marked the best reading since June 2022 and beat market expectations. Looking at the details of the release, manufacturing production rebounded in March, while mining output swung to contraction.
On an annual basis, factory output plunged 6.7% in March, which was significantly greater than February’s 3.9% fall and marked the worst result since September 2020. Accordingly, the trend pointed down, with the annual average variation of industrial production coming in at minus 2.0% in March, down from February’s minus 1.4%.
ING’s Min Joo Kang commented on the outlook:
“As production stoppages due to the safety scandal issue [at a Toyota subsidiary in December] have normalised since March, we believe that there could be a few more months of catch-up production. Production output forecasts for April and May also rose 4.1% month-on-month sa and 4.4% each, which suggests that the growth momentum in manufacturing activity is likely to continue in the second quarter.”