Eurostat reports that total Industrial Production (IP) increased by +0.4% (seasonally adjusted) compared to January for both the EU and the Euro-zone. Compared to February 2025, total IP fell by -0.1% in the EU, with a reduction of -0.6% for the Euro-zone. Note that as with the other figures in this week’s reports, this all refers to a period before the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East.
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 figures in the UK report, although the definition of capital goods are comparable. Manufacturing makes up the largest part of IP but it also includes output of energy and utilities.
Looking at the 3-month moving trend, total IP in the latest 3 months (December 2025, January and February 2026) was -0.7% lower than in the previous period (September to November 2025) for both the EU and the Euro-zone. The main driver of this is the sharp fall in January which is some way from being countered by the modest improvement in February.
At the sub-sector level, in the month-on-month data, output of the capital goods industries grew by +1.1% for the EU and by +1.0% in the Euro-zone. In both areas, this was the second strongest performance among the sub-sectors, with growth in output of non-durable consumer goods leading the way in February.
The comparison with a year earlier (February 2025) shows the capital goods industry is the best performing of the sub-sectors with growth in output of +3.0% for the EU and +2.5% in the Euro-zone.
Staying with the 12-month trends, of the 27 Member States, total IP increased in 15 and fell in 12. The strongest increases in percentage terms were in Sweden (+7.7%), Belgium (+7.4%) and Denmark (+5.8%), while Luxembourg (-17.0%), Ireland (-10.0%) and Bulgaria (-8.0%) had the largest reductions.
You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (15 April) or request it from MTA.