Luxembourg, 28/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to estimates published by Eurostat on 20 March, industrial production in the euro zone fell by 1.9% in January 2001 compared to December 2000. As for production in the Union (EU15), it fell by 1.8%, following a rise of 1.6% in December.
In the euro zone, the steepest falls in January concerned intermediary goods (-1.4%); in the EU15, this concerned durable and non-durable consumer goods (-1.5% for each sector). The other sectors also recorded falls, except for investment goods in the euro zone (+0.5%). Industrial production was down in almost all Member States, except in Germany (+0.5%), and the steepest falls were recorded in the Netherlands (-10.6%), Denmark (-4.4%) and Portugal (-3.4%).
In annual terms, industrial production increased, in January 2001, by 5.5% in the euro zone and 4.4% in the EU15 (compared to January 2000). The steepest increases were recorded in investment goods (10.8% in the euro zone and 10.5% in the EU15). The production of durable consumer goods increased by over 5% both in the euro zone and the EU15. Intermediary goods and non-durable consumer goods saw smaller rises, with, respectively, 3.9 and 2.1% in the euro zone and 3.3 and 0.7% in the EU15. Compared to January 2000, Germany, Finland and Belgium recorded rises greater than 6.7 to 8% on the EU average, whereas production in Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was down slightly.