Eurozone industrial production rises in October

Factory activity in the eurozone continued to progress in October, data from Eurostat showed on Wednesday, picking up after a month-on-month fall in September.

The data showed that industrial production in the 19-nation single currency bloc rose by a monthly 0.2% in October after falling by 0.5% in September.

On an annualised basis, the rate of growth pushed up to 3.7% in October from 3.4% in the previous month, and beat forecasts of a 3.5% rise.

Breakdown of gains

The rise came thanks to heightened production of non-durable consumer goods, which rose 0.5% on a monthly basis and at an annual growth rate of 5.7%.

Chart Courtesy of Eurostat

Among the individual member states, Ireland saw the greatest rate of monthly production growth at a rate of 10.6%, while annual growth progressed at a rapid 13.4%.

Claus Vistesen, chief eurozone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said: "The data suggest that manufacturing in the eurozone had a slow start to the fourth quarter, but production didn’t fall as we initially expected, and year-over-year growth accelerated in line with survey data."

Market reaction

The euro was little moved by the data, and climbed 0.07% against the dollar to $1.1751, but was down against a stronger sterling. The pound gained 0.14% to €1.1358.