European Industrial Production, January 2023: The data on Industrial Production (IP) released by Eurostat this week showed an incomplete reversal of the fall in December with growth of +0.3% for the EU and +0.7% for the Euro-zone. Compared with January 2022, total IP increased by +1.0% in the EU and by +0.9% for the Euro-zone. As a result, the gap between the indexed value of IP in the EU (leading) and the Euro-zone which began at the start of 2018 and widened after the pandemic dip, is being maintained.
Interestingly, the month-on-month growth came entirely from intermediate goods (up by +1.1% in the EU and +1.5% for the Euro-zone); capital goods, which is the most important sub-sector for us, saw output fall by -0.2% for both the EU and the Euro-zone compared to December 2022. Looking back over 12 months, it is the capital goods sector which leads the way with output growing by +8.3% in the EU and +8.2% in the Euro-zone.
Staying with the 12-month comparison, of the 26 Member States who have published the data (Cyprus is missing as usual), output increased in 9 and fell in the other 16 (12 and 14 respectively in December 2022).the largest percentage reductions were in Lithuania (-12.0%), Latvia (-9.8%) and Slovakia (-8.6%), with the largest increases being recorded in Ireland (+19.5%), Denmark (+14.2%) and Malta (12.4%). Among the largest EU economies, only Italy (+1.4%) saw a rise in total IP, with Germany (-1.5%), France (-2.5%) and Spain (-0.7%) all declining.
You can get the full details from the Eurostat News Release which can be downloaded from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/euro-indicators (15 March) or requested from MTA.