2021.05.0709:27:00UTC+00France Industrial Production Recovers In March

France's industrial and manufacturing production recovered in March, figures from the statistical office Insee showed on Friday.

Industrial output grew 0.8 percent month-on-month, reversing a 4.8 percent drop in February. However, this was weaker than the economists' forecast of 2 percent.

In the manufacturing sector, production rose 0.4 percent after falling 4.8 percent a month ago.

The growth in manufacturing was driven by the recovery in machinery and equipment goods and manufacture of transport equipment.

Compared to February 2020, the last month before the first general lockdown, output declined sharply by 6.8 percent in the manufacturing industry and by 5.9 percent in whole industry.

Output of mining and quarrying, energy, water supply and waste management gained 2.9 percent, while construction output fell 7.3 percent on month in March.

In the first quarter of 2021, manufacturing and industrial output was up by 1.7 percent compared to the same quarter of 2020.