In its report dated 15 January, Eurostat details the figures for industrial production in the European Union for November 2023, compared with those for October of the same year and November 2022.
The result is indisputable: European industrial production is down, and significantly so compared to the same period last year. In one year, the report shows a fall of 5.8%. Since October, production has fallen by 0.2%.
Monthly production of capital goods, such as construction products, machinery and equipment, fell by 0.8% in the European Union as a whole in November, after dropping by 0.7% in October.
In the EU, compared to November 2022, industrial production has fallen by 8.7% for capital goods, 8.4% for durable consumer goods, 5.6% for intermediate goods and 3.8% for non-durable consumer goods.
Among the Member States for which data are available, Eurostat records the biggest annual falls in Ireland (-30.4%), Belgium (-11.6%) and Bulgaria (-10.9%).
This drop in production echoes the concerns expressed for many months by several industry groups and business lobbies. They criticise in particular the weight of the European administrative burden, high taxation and the Union’s lack of competitiveness in relation to China and the United States (see EUROPE 13293/12).
To see the Eurostat report: https://aeur.eu/f/aeu (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)