According to the report from the Eurostat, in January, eurozone industrial production fell by 3.2%, offsetting the December increase (+1.6%, revised from +2.6%). Economists had expected production to decline by 1.5%. It was the sharpest contraction in activity since March 2023. In annual terms, industrial production fell by 6.7% (the sharpest decline since September 2023) after rising 0.2% in December (revised from +1.2%). Consensus estimates suggested a drop by 2.9%. Meanwhile, among the countries of the European Union, industrial production fell by 2.1% on a monthly basis and by 5.7% per annum.
Eurostat reported that the monthly change in the eurozone was caused by a drop in production of capital goods (-14,5%), durable consumer goods (-1,2%) and non-durable consumer goods (-0,3%). Meanwhile, production growth was recorded in the intermediate goods sector (+2.6%) and the energy sector (+0.5%).
Meanwhile, the decline in industrial production in the eurozone compared to January 2023 was caused by a drop in production of capital goods (-12.1%), durable consumer goods (-8.4%), non-durable consumer goods (-3.1%) and intermediate goods (-2.5%). Meanwhile, production in the energy sector increased by 0.3%.
As for the EU countries, the largest annual decreases were recorded in Ireland (-34.1%), Estonia (-8.6%) and Bulgaria (-7.6%). The highest increases were observed in Slovenia (+12.2%), Greece (+10.5%) and Denmark (+5.3%).