Industrial Production Stable In Europe

The industrial production index for the euro area and the EU27 remained unchanged in July compared with June 2010 according the Eurotstat statistics. Compared with July 2009 the index fell by 7.1% in the euro area and 6.8% in the EU27.

Production of non-durable consumer goods increased by 0.1% in both areas. Production of durable consumer goods fell by 0.6% in the euro area and 0.8% in the EU27. Capital goods grew by 0.1% in the euro area but in the EU27 area the index fell by 0.2%. Energy production fell by 0.1% and 0.4% respectively over the month.

The annual comparison shows that production of intermediate goods grew by 9.2% in the euro area and 9.5% in the EU27. Capital goods grew by 9.2% and 9.3% respectively. Durable consumer goods production increased by 5.3% in the euro area and 7% in the EU27 and non-durable consumer goods production grew by 3.6% and 3.7% respectively. Energy production increased by 1.9% in the euro area but fell by 0.1% in the EU27.

Production In Europe Increased In April

Indicators from Eurostat tell us that in April 2010 industrial production in the euro area was up by 0.8% and by 0.5% in the EU27 compared with March 2010. Other monthly comparisons include the production of capital goods which increased by 1.1% in the euro area and 0.7% in the EU27. Durable consumer goods fell by 0.1% in the euro area but increased by 0.4% in the EU27. Non-durables fell by 1.2% and 1.6%. Intermediate goods grew by 2.2% and 2.7% respectively but energy fell by 0.9% and 0.2%. Industrial production rose in 12 and fell in 9 of the countries for which data is available. The highest increases were in Lithuania with 6%, Estonia 2.4% and Denmark with 2.2%. Ireland registered the biggest decrease with 10.9%, Portugal's production fell by 4.4% and Greece by 3.4%.

Annual comparisons suggest that in April 2010 compared with April 2009 industrial production increased by 9.5% in the euro area and 7.8% in the EU27. Intermediate goods made the biggest contribution with growth of 16% in the euro area and 14.1% in the EU27. Capital goods increased by 8.9% in the euro area and 7.9% in the EU27. Energy production rose by 6.9% and 5% respectively. Production of non-durable consumer goods went up by 3% in the euro area and 1.1% in the EU27 and of durables by 1.4% and 4.1% respectively. On a national level industrial production rose in 18 of the member states for which data is available. The highest increases were in Estonia (18.3%), the Netherlands (14.7%) and Germany (13.9%). The only states in which industrial production fell were Greece (-6.4%), Ireland (-2.8%) and Bulgaria (-2.6%).

Ups And Downs Of Output

The Index of Production fell by 3.6% in December 2009 compared with December 2008. The index for the whole of 2009 fell by 10.2% compared with 2008. Within the production industries the Index of Manufacturing for December 2009 fell by 1.9% year-on-year. The Index of Manufacturing for the whole of 2009 fell by 10.5% compared with 2008. The indices are seasonally adjusted. Month-on-month both the IoP and the IoM reported an increase for the third month in a row, of 0.5% and 0.9% respectively.

The Index of Production is produced by the Office for National Statistics and measures the volume of production of the manufacturing, mining and quarrying and energy supply industries and covers 23.1% of the UK economy as it was in the base year 2000. The Index of Manufacturing covers the 13 sub-sectors of manufacturing and the aggregate forms the manufacturing output time series.

In December output decreased in 9 of the 13 manufacturing sub-sectors and rose in 4 of them. The machinery and equipment industries reported the largest decreases and fell by 13.6% with the manufacturing of machinery for the production of mechanical power the largest contributor with a decrease of 22.6%. The paper, printing and publishing industries fell by 4.2% with the publishing of newspapers making the largest contribution with a fall of 8.1%. In the mining and quarrying sector, the oil and gas extraction sub-sector contributed a decrease of 9.9% to the overall sector fall of 12.1% in December 2009 compared with December 2008. Other mining and quarrying decreased by 35.3%. The energy, gas and water supply industries index fell by 6.6%.

In the main industrial groupings, consumer durables reported an increase of 0.1%. The other main groups reported falls. Consumer non-durables decreased by 1.3%, capital items by 0.8% and intermediate goods by 6.5%.

The Index of Production can be used on its own as a short term indicator as the Index covered 78.6% of the total IoP in the base year. It is usually the first indicator of economic activity and an important component of GDP and National Accounts.

Production Up Across Some Sectors In September

The volume index for the output of the production industries for Q3 was released today in the latest Index of Production statistical bulletin from the ONS. The index decreased by 0.8% compared with the last quarter but was 10.5% lower on the same time last year. Manufacturinf output was down 0.1%, mining and quarrying 4.7% and utilities 0.8%.

The monthly difference was an increase of 1.7% in manufacturing, 8% in electrical and optical equipment, 3% in transport and 4.2% in other manufacturing industries.

Of the market sectors covered by the survey, capital goods was up by 0.2% on the previous quarter and 2.2% on the year. During the last month consumer durables were up 5.5% and both consumer non-durable goods and intermediate goods increased by 1% and 1.3% respectively, but all were down on the year.

The September Index stands at 86.9, 1.6% up on August.