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Eurozone industrial production beats forecasts â€Ž

14 April 2010 13:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA-Economics. The industrial recovery in the 16 countries that use the euro appears to be gathering steam after official figures Wednesday showed that output from the sector spiked by way more than anticipated during February, Associated Press reported.

Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office, said that industrial production in the eurozone rose by 0.9 percent in February from the month before, way higher than the 0.1 percent increase anticipated in the markets.

It’s also the second sizable monthly rise following January’s 1.6 percent increase, and is likely to reinforce hopes that the recovery from recession is proving to be more robust than anticipated.

February’s industrial production figures confirm that the sector continues to expand at a healthy pace and provides hope that the slowdown in the wider economy in Q4 will prove temporary," said Ben May, European economist at Capital Economics.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, economic output in the eurozone was flat, down from the 0.4 percent increase recorded in the third quarter, which officially brought the end to the recession.

On a year-on-year basis, Eurostat said industrial production was 4.1 percent higher, way up on January’s equivalent of 1 percent, which was the first positive annual figure since April 2008.