EUROZONE DATA
Eurozone industrial production declined more than expected in January at -3.2% M/M (vs -1.5% consensus, 1.6% prior revised from 2.6%). The annual reading was also weak, at -6.7% Y/Y (vs -3.0% consensus, 0.2% prior revised from 1.2%).
- However, the January fall was strongly driven by Ireland, which saw production decrease 29.0% M/M - once again making it difficult to read a signal from the aggregate figures.
- The broader picture beyond the (now-typical statistical) Irish distortion is that the level of euro area industrial production hit a fresh post-2020 low in seasonally-adjusted terms in January, with negative momentum persisting for most of the past 2 years.
- Looking at the largest members of the Eurozone, results were mixed: Belgium (-2.0% M/M), France (-0.1% M/M) and the Netherlands (-4.0% M/M) all saw production decline M/M. Germany and Spain saw modest rises (0.6% / 0.9%, respectively), while Italian data was not published.
- From a sectoral perspective, 3 of 5 sub-components fell. Specifically, the M/M decline was driven by a fall in capital goods of 14.5% (vs +11.3% M/M prior), followed by durable consumer goods (-1.2%) and non- durable goods (-0.3%).
- Meanwhile, intermediate goods printed their first increase since September at +2.6% M/M.
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