Eurozone industrial production disappoints

(Sharecast News) - Industrial production ticked only modestly higher in the Eurozone in September, official data showed on Thursday, missing expectations for a larger gain. According to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical office, production increased by 0.2%. That was a notable improvement on August's 1.1% slide but below forecasts for a 0.7% improvement.

In the wider bloc, industrial production increased by 0.8% following August's 0.9% decline.

Leading the improvement in the Eurozone was energy, which recorded a 1.2% uplift. In contrast, non-durable consumer goods slumped 2.6%.

Among individual countries, manufacturing-reliant Germany - the bloc's biggest economy - reported a 1.9% gain, having posted a 4.4% slump in August.

Industrial production rose by 0.4% in Spain, by 0.8% in France and by 2.8% in Italy.

Some of the contrast between the August and September prints was attributed to the regularly volatile Irish data. Industrial data plunged 9.4% in Ireland, reversing August's 9.5% surge.

However, longer-term and Eurozone manufacturing has remained under pressure for much of 2025.

Bert Colijn, chief economist, Netherlands, at ING, said: "The overall Eurozone trend since the US announced the increase in tariffs in April has been flat.

"On the plus side, this means that a large drop in production due to tariffs hasn't materialised. In fact, production levels remain higher than on average in 2024.

"This indicates that manufacturing production has moved into a slightly higher gear, but at the same time, we also don't see any growth at this level. Large public investment plans are not yet causing a meaningful acceleration of activity at this point."

Year-on-year, industrial production rose by 1.2% in the Eurozone and by 2.0% across the EU.