Surge in industrial production in Ireland leads to eurozone upswing

Large multinationals have a distortive effect on Irish economic data.

Eurozone industrial production rebounded more than expected in April after a slump in March, as a surge in the output of capital goods such as buildings and equipment offset reduced production of consumer goods.

Industrial production in the 20 countries sharing the euro rose 1% month-on-month in April for a 0.2% year-on-year rise, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat said. Economists polled by Reuters had expected 0.8% monthly and annual increases.

Eurostat said capital goods output jumped 14.7% month-on-month in April after a 15.2% plunge in March, more than compensating for a 2.6% monthly fall in the production of durable consumer goods and a 3.0% fall in non-durable goods.

Euro area #IndustrialProduction +1.0% in April 2023 over March, +0.2% over April 2022 https://t.co/e4egsz7beO pic.twitter.com/vqnCUb5nqh

— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) June 14, 2023

The upswing of production was clearest in Ireland, where large multinationals have a distortive effect on statistics. No other nation was even close to matching the Irish increase of 21.5%. The largest decreases were observed in Slovenia (-7.9%), Portugal (-5.5%) and the Netherlands (-3.5%).

Capital goods output was also the main driving force behind the rise of production in year-on-year terms, offsetting steep falls for intermediate goods, energy and durable consumer goods.

In the EU, production of capital goods rose by 8.8% in April compared to April 2022 and non-durable consumer goods by 1.8%, while production of durable consumer goods fell by 6.1%, intermediate goods by 6.6% and energy by 8.3%.

Reuters