2021.02.1008:41:00UTC+00France Industrial Production Falls For Second Month

French industrial production declined for the second straight month in December, data from the statistical office Insee showed on Wednesday.

Industrial production decreased unexpectedly by 0.8 percent month-on-month in December, slower than the 0.7 percent drop in November. Output was expected to rise 0.2 percent. Manufacturing output dropped 1.7 percent, in contrast to an increase of 0.7 percent in the previous month. This was the first decline since April 2020, when output plunged 22.5 percent.

The decline in manufacturing was driven by a 30.5 percent fall in manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products and a 3.5 percent decrease in machinery and equipment goods output. Manufacture of food products and beverages was down 1.8 percent.

Compared to February, the last month before the first general lockdown, output remained significantly lower in the manufacturing industry by 5.7 percent as well as in the whole industry by 4.9 percent.

In the fourth quarter, manufacturing output was 4.4 percent lower than the same quarter of 2019 and by 3.8 percent in the whole industry.