European Industrial Production (IP) fell by -0.1% compared to May for the Euro-zone but was unchanged for the EU – this decline was driven by the non-durable consumer goods industries. In comparison with a year earlier, IP fell by -3.9% and -3.2% respectively. The quarterly data shows the average for Q2 was -0.4% lower than Q1 for the Euro-zone and down by -0.2% in the EU.
The data published by Eurostat uses Industrial Production rather than manufacturing (for which it does not provide a breakdown) so it is not directly equivalent the same as the UK figures at this level, although the figures for capital goods are directly comparable. Manufacturing makes up the largest part of IP but it also includes output of energy.
At the sub-sector level, the only one to see output fall when comparing June with May was non-durable consumer goods; output of the capital goods industries grew by +0.9% for both the Euro-zone and the EU as a whole. However, compared to June 2023, production of capital goods declined by -7.8% in the Euro-zone and -7.1% for the EU – this made it, by far, the weakest of the sub-sectors.
Staying with the 12-month trends, of the 26 Member States who have published data (Slovenia is missing in this report), total IP increased in 10 and declined in 16. The largest fall in total IP were in Ireland (-17.4%) – note that Ireland is often volatile and had a very large increase in May – Croatia (-8.3%) and Latvia (-5.5%); the most significant increases in IP were in Greece (+9.5%), Cyprus (+8.8%) and Malta (+6.3%).
You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (14 August) or request it from MTA.