Using seasonally adjusted data, Industrial Production (IP) in the EU fell by -1.6% compared to December 2025, with the Euro-zone seeing a decline of -1.5%, taking it to its lowest level since January 2025 and December 2024, respectively. Compared to January 2025, total IP in the EU was down by -0.6%, with a reduction of -1.2% for the Euro-zone.
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, 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.
At the sub-sector level, in the month-on-month data, output of the capital goods industries fell by -2.3% for both the EU and the Euro-zone. The comparison with a year earlier (January 2025) shows the opposite trend with capital goods output growing by +1.7% in the EU and +1.1% for the Euro-zone. On the latter trend, only the capital goods and energy sub-sectors saw output rise over this period, with energy having the strongest growth.
Staying with the 12-month trends, of the 27 Member States, total IP increased in 12, was unchanged in one (the Netherlands) and fell in 14. The strongest increases in percentage terms were in Latvia (+13.3%), Denmark (+11.5%) and Estonia (+5.9%), while Luxembourg (-14.9%), Ireland (-13.1%) and Bulgaria (-8.6%) had the largest reductions. You can get the Eurostat figures from their website at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/news/euro-indicators (13 March) or request it from MTA.