Italian industrial production beats forecasts in March

Italian industrial production grew more quickly than expected in March as output of capital goods and non-durable ones accelerated.

Total output was up by 0.4% month-on-month and 2.8% year-on-year, according to ISTAT.

Economists had forecast an increase of 0.4% month-on-month (2.5% year-on-year).

Capital goods output registered the biggest rise, with a gain of 2.4%, alongside an increase of 2.3% in the production of consumer goods (durable: 2.0%; non-durable: 2.4%).

Production of intermediate goods was also higher, rising by 0.4%, even as energy output shrank 5.2%.

"Today's outturn leaves our Q1 GDP forecast (GDP to be released on 16 May) unchanged at +0.2% q/q, consistent with indications from our GDP tracker," said Fabio Fois at Barclays Research.