French industrial production growth slowed in February

According to the report from Insee, in February 2019, output accelerated in the manufacturing industry (+1.1% after +0.7% in January) and slowed down in the whole industry (+0.4% after +1.2). Economists had expected a 0.5% decrease of  industrial production.

Manufacturing output increased over the last three months (+1.0%), as well as in the whole industry (+0.7%). Over the last three months, output grew in most of branches: in the manufacture of transport equipment (+3.2%), in “other manufacturing” (+0.6%), in the manufacture of machinery and equipment goods (+1.1%), in the manufacture of food products and beverages (+0.5%) and in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products (+1.0%). Conversely, it decreased in mining and quarrying, energy, water supply (−0.9%).

Manufacturing output of the last three months increased slightly compared to the same three months a year ago (+0.5%), and it was virtually stable in the whole industry. Over a year, output increased sharply in the manufacture of transport equipment (+4.3%) and more moderatly in “other manufacturing” (+0.3%). On the contrary, it decreased strongly in mining and quarrying, energy, water supply (−3.2%), in coke and refined petroleum products (−3.2%) and more moderatly in the manufacture of food products and beverages (−1.0%) and in the manufacture of machinery and equipment goods (−0.4%).