Euro area industrial production declines in December led by Germany

Industrial output in the single currency block fell at the end of 2022 amid widespread declines by goods categories, although most major economies in fact saw gains.

According to Eurostat, industrial production in the euro area fell at a month-on-month pace of 1.1% in December.

That was more than the 0.7% decline that economists had penciled in, but was offset by an upwards revision to the prior month's reading of four tenths of a percentage point to 1.4%.

Output of intermediate goods was weakest over the month, dropping by 2.8%, while that of capital goods softened by 0.4%.

Nevertheless, production of capital goods was coming off a 2.0% jump in the month before.

Production of durable consumer goods shrank by 1.4% and that of non-durables by 1.0%.

German industrial output fell by 2.1% in comparison to November, but in France it rose by 1.1%, in Spain by 0.7%, in Italy by 1.6% and in the Netherlands by 2.1%.