Seasonally adjusted data for Industrial Production (IP) for the EU had a month-on-month fall of -0.8% in December, with the Euro-zone seeing a decline of -1.4%. However, compared to December 2024, total IP grew by +1.4% in the EU and +1.2% for the Euro-zone. In 2025, total IP in both the EU and the Euro-zone was +1.5% higher than in 2024.
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 to the UK figures that we reported last week at this level, although the figures for capital goods are comparable. Manufacturing makes up the largest part of IP but it also includes output of energy and utilities.
On a quarterly basis, total IP in the 4th quarter was +0.2% higher than in the 3rd period of the year for both the EU and the Euro-zone.
At the sub-sector level, in the month-on-month data, capital goods was the weakest part of IP with output falling by -1.4% in the EU and -1.9% for the Euro-zone. The comparison with a year earlier (December 2024) shows the opposite trend with capital goods output growing by +4.5% in the EU and +4.1% for the Euro-zone – this made it the strongest of the 5 industrial sub-sectors, with only intermediate goods also growing on this comparison.
Staying with the 12-month trends, of the 26 Member States who have published their December 2025 figures (Belgium is missing), total IP increased in 17 and fell in 9. The strongest increases in percentage terms were in Poland (+6.9%), Sweden (+4.8%) and Croatia (+4.5%), while Slovakia (-8.5%), Luxembourg (-7.9%) and Bulgaria (-6.8%) had the largest reductions.
You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (16 February) or request it from MTA.