Eurozone industrial production rises more than expected in August
Eurozone industrial production rose more than expected in August, according to figures released by Eurostat on Monday.
Industrial output increased 0.4% on the month, beating expectations for a 0.3% jump.
The production of capital goods and intermediate goods rose 1.2% and 0.3%, respectively, while production of non-durable consumer goods fell 0.3% and durable consumer goods and energy output was 0.4% lower.
On the year, industrial production fell 2.8% in August versus expectations of a 2.5% decline.
The production of non-durable consumer goods and capital goods fell 2% and 2.9%, respectively, while output of intermediate goods was down 3.1% and energy production decreased 3.3%. The production of durable consumer goods rose 0.4%.
Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics: "These are decent data, but the relatively solid performance in August almost surely isn’t enough to salvage the Q3 headline as a whole, at least not if the main surveys are anything to go by.
"We are pencilling-in a 0.6% month-to-month decline in September- a year-over-year rate of -3% - which would equate to a quarter-on-quarter rate of -1.0%, worse than the -0.6% in Q2. Note that this deterioration, at least based on the current data, primarily is thanks to weakness in France, while production in Germany probably declined by a bit less than in Q2.
"If we are right, manufacturing remained a drag on EZ GDP growth in Q3, likely holding the quarter-on-quarter on run rate as low as 0.1-to-0.2%, or even zero, depending on the out-turn of the September reports."
ING economist Bert Colijn said even though industrial production rose on the month in August, it "doesn't really seem like the industrial recession has ended just yet".
"The outlook for the industry does not show much light at the end of the tunnel as September survey data suggest continued contraction at the end of Q3. Production peaked almost two years ago, but spillovers to the service sector have remained limited for now.
"That means that GDP growth can remain positive in the short run although worries about the coming quarters persist."