Highlights
Industrial production (excluding construction) unexpectedly declined 0.1 percent on the month at the end of last year and that after the previously reported 1.1 percent November gain had been revised to a rise of just 0.5 percent. As a result, quarterly growth was a meagre 0.1 percent following a 3.1 percent surge in the previous period. The annual drop was 2.3 percent.

In fact even the headline fall was worst that it looked with the key manufacturing sector seeing output slump some 0.8 percent, effectively wiping out its November advance. The only areas to post any significant positive growth were food, where production rose 3.4 percent from November, and energy, which saw output up 5.3 percent.

Otherwise there were falls across the board. Transport (minus 4.7 percent), electronics and machines (minus 1.4 percent) were the weakest sub-sectors but output also fell in refining (0.4 percent) and in the other manufactured goods category (0.8 percent).

Today's report casts a cloud over fourth quarter real GDP. The flash estimate is due on Friday and earlier this week the national central bank was forecasting a quarterly rise as high as 0.5 percent. This now looks somewhat optimistic and it may be that growth will struggle to surpass the modest 0.3 percent advance registered in the third quarter. In any event today's data will fuel mounting concerns that the economic recovery in the Eurozone is simply not gaining sufficient momentum.

2010 Release Schedule

Released On: 1/11 2/10 3/10 4/9 5/10 6/10 7/9 8/10 9/10 10/11 Released For: Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug