According to the report from the Eurostat, in March, eurozone industrial production increased by 0.6%, slowing compared to February (+1%, revised from +0.8%). Economists had expected an increase of 0.5%. In annual terms, industrial production fell by 1.0% after a 6.3% decline in February (revised from -6.4%). Consensus estimates suggested a drop by 1.2%. Meanwhile, among the countries of the European Union, industrial production increased by 0.2% on a monthly basis and fell by 1.0% per annum.
Eurostat reported that the monthly change in the eurozone was caused by a drop in production of non-durable consumer goods (-2.7%), durable consumer goods (-1.1%), energy (-0.9%) and intermediate goods (-0.5%). Production growth was recorded in the capital goods sector (+1.0%).
Meanwhile, the decline in industrial production in the eurozone compared to March 2023 was caused by a drop in production of durable consumer goods (-8.3%), non-durable consumer goods (-7.0%), energy (-3.5%) and intermediate goods (-2.3%). Meanwhile, capital goods production increased by 1.8%.
As for the EU countries, the largest annual decreases were recorded in Finland (-7.7%), Bulgaria (-7.6%) and Austria (-7.0%). The highest increases were observed in Ireland (+37.0%), Cyprus (+8.5%) and Romania (+3.5%).