Eurozone Industrial Production Falls Than Expected
Eurozone industrial production plunged the most in almost two years in February, erasing some of the improvements recorded at the beginning of the year.
The data released by Eurostat showed production fell 0.8 percent, 0.1 percent above economists forecast of 0.7 percent.
Non-durable consumer goods fell 1.8 percent, while energy dropped 1.2 percent. Durable consumer goods and capital goods plunged 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent respectively.
On yearly basis, production was 0.8 percent higher but fall-short of 1.2 percent expected.
Although the latest drop is mainly technical but surveys and confidence indicators shows possible weakness ahead. Also, manufacturing Purchase Managers’ Indexes released by Markit indicates low economic confidence in the 19 nation euro region to lowest in more than a year.
“Nonetheless, recent business surveys point to further weakness in March, as forward-looking indicators continued to nose dive, amid challenging external demand,” economists including Philippe Gudin in Paris said earlier on Wednesday.
