Eurozone factory output falls in February
By Sean Farrell
Date: Wednesday 14 Apr 2021
(Sharecast News) - Eurozone industrial production fell in February but beat expectations, official figures showed.
Factory output dropped 1% from January when production rose 0.8%, Eurostat said. The result was better than analysts' average forecast for a 1.3% decline.
Manufacturing activity has helped support the eurozone's economies as services have been hit by Covid-19 lockdowns. After plunging early in the pandemic when factories were shut, production has held up with most plants continuing to operate.
The biggest drop was in production of capital goods, including cars, with a 1.9% decline. Durable goods output fell 1.1% and energy fell 1.2%. Production fell 1.2% in Germany, the zone's biggest manufacturer, and 4.8% in France.
Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: We always expected the upturn in manufacturing production to slow in the first quarter, but the data now suggest that momentum weakened more than we thought. But we are not looking for a disaster. In particular, we reckon that production snapped back in March."
Vistesen predicted a "decent" 1.5% gain in the first quarter, slowing from a 4.3% increase in the fourth quarter of 2020, followed by a 1.3% rise in the second quarter.
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