Industrial Production (IP) for the European Union (EU) showed a month-on-month decrease of -1.0%, with the Euro-zone down by -1.3%; this follows growth of +0.8% and +1.1% respectively in May, while remaining slightly above the 2024 average. Total IP in the EU was +0.5% higher than in June 2024, with an increase of +0.2% for the Euro-zone.
As previously noted, Eurostat data uses Industrial Production rather than manufacturing (which is not broken down in the data) so it is not directly equivalent to the UK figures at this level, although the figures for capital goods are comparable. Manufacturing makes up the largest part of IP, but utilities and energy are included in this category.
March 2025 saw a peak in total IP, likely to be due to a ramp-up of trade in anticipation of the tariffs that were imposed the following month. The trend in Q2-2025 has been broadly downwards as a result of these tariffs, though “tariff certainty” has to some extent softened the decline.
Tracking quarterly data is more difficult due to the format that Eurostat uses, but total IP for the EU in Q2-2025 was unchanged from Q1-2025. For the Euro-zone, the equivalent trend was a decline of -0.3%.
At the sub-sector level, in the month-on-month data, capital goods output fell by -1.7% in the EU and -2.2% for the Euro-zone; energy was the only sub-sector where output rose in both areas. A comparison with the previous year (June 2024) shows decreases in capital goods output of -1.3% for the EU and -2.1% for the Euro-zone.
As usual the data for Ireland is distorted by having many European headquarters operations (often of US companies); the data is based on turnover attributed to companies classified in the industrial sector, with a fall of -14.8% in April followed by a rise of +11.9% in May and a fall of -11.3% in June.
Despite the overall decline seen in Q2-2025, the latest data shows some areas of growth in industrial activity in June 2025 when compared to June 2024; of the 27 Member States, total IP increased in 16 and fell for 11. The strongest increases in percentage terms were in Sweden (+13.4%), Ireland (+10.5%) and Latvia (+7.3%), with Sweden and Latvia seeing a reversal of declines seen for the period to March 2025. In contrast, Bulgaria (-8.2%), Hungary (-4.9%) and Slovenia (-4.3%) had the largest declines. 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.