October 15, 2015

Signs of Chinese deceleration likely affected industrial production in key manufacturing powerhouses in the Eurozone, particularly in Germany. According to Eurostat, industrial output contracted a seasonally-adjusted 0.5% in August over the previous month. August’s result, which contrasted the 0.6% increase observed in July, matched market expectations. On an annual basis, industrial output decelerated sharply from a 1.9% increase in July to a 0.9% expansion in August, which represented a four-month low.



In a statement, Eurostat said that the monthly decrease reflected a contraction in energy production (-3.0% month-on-month), a decrease in output of capital goods (-1.0% mom) as well as of durable goods (-0.1% mom).



Among the Euro area economies, for which data are available, the drop was driven by contractions in Lithuania (-3.5% mom), Slovakia (-1.6% mom), and the Netherlands (-1.5% mom). Conversely, industrial production increased in Greece, Estonia and Malta.



Among the region’s major economies, industrial production contracted 1.1% in Germany, fell 0.5% in Italy and plunged 1.3% in Spain. In France, industrial output rebounded over the previous month and expanded 1.6% over the previous month.

FocusEconomics Consensus Forecast panelists see industrial production expanding 1.8% in 2015, which is up 0.3 percentage points from last month’s forecast. For 2016, panelists see industrial production growing 2.5%.