There was a sharp uptick in total European industrial production (IP) according to Eurostat, with the EU +1.0% higher than in January and an increase of +1.1% for the Euro-zone. Looking back over 12 months (February 2024), total IP grew by +0.6% in the EU and by +1.2% in the Euro-zone.
Unlike the UK data which we reported last week, Eurostat uses IP as the headline definition, and while manufacturing is by far the largest part of this sector, it also includes the extraction, energy production and utilities industries. Unfortunately, they don’t provide a breakdown of IP that includes manufacturing that we can compare directly with the UK data.
Monthly data can be quite noisy and the strong performance in February needs to be considered in the context of a weak period around the turn of the year. Therefore, total IP in the EU for the latest 3 months (December 2024 and January & February 2025) was only +0.1% higher than in the previous period (September, October and November 2024), with the Euro-zone up by +0.2% on the same basis – these trends are both seasonally and calendar adjusted.
Eurostat only have a breakdown by sub-sector in their publication (further details are available via their data store). This shows that output of the capital (or investment) goods group of industries compared to January grew by +0.9% for the EU and by +0.8% for the Euro-zone; however, looking back to February 2024, output of this sector fell by -1.7% in the EU and -1.8% for the Euro-zone.
Continuing with the 12-month comparison, of the 27 EU Member States, 14 saw an increase in total IP, with the other 13 registering a decline. Excluding the extraordinary performance of Ireland where total IP was +38.8% higher than in February 2024 (output here is affected by the presence of headquarters operations of multi-national companies), the strongest increases over the past 12 months were in Lithuania (+9.1%), Cyprus and Luxembourg (both +6.6%). The largest falls in percentage terms were in Hungary (-8.0%), Bulgaria (-4.7%) and Germany (-3.7%), although given the size of the sector and economy, the latter will have had the most significant reduction in value terms.
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 April) or requested from MTA.