EU industrial output down 19% on last year

U industrial production continued to slow down in March as the recession hit hard.

Output across the 27-nation bloc in March was 18.8 per cent lower than in March 2008, before the global economic downturn took firm hold, according to figures from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat today.

March is the eleventh straight month that EU industrial production has declined as companies across the trading bloc reduced working hours and laid off staff amid a huge fall in demand.

However, the rate of decline appeared to be slowing as the EU-wide data showed a smaller month-on-month decline.

March output was 1.9 per cent down on February, less than the previous two month-on-month values of a 2.2 per cent and a 2.6 per cent declines in February and January respectively.

As for the three biggest-emitting EU countries in March, industrial output fell 21.7 in Germany, 14.8 per cent in the UK, and 10 per cent in Poland, compared to the same month a year ago.

Energy production fell by 2.8 per cent compared to February and was down 9 per cent compared to the same month in 2008, indicating a large fall off in carbon dioxide emissions.

Eurostat data excludes the construction sector and only showed percentage changes in output without publishing industrial production totals.