Malta reported a five per cent decrease in industrial production in January compared with a month earlier, the largest drop in the eurozone, according to Eurostat – as well as when this January is compared with last January, when it saw a decrease of 8.9 per cent.
In January 2016 compared with December 2015, seasonally adjusted industrial production rose by 2.1 per cent in the eurozone, while in January 2016 compared with January 2015, industrial production increased by 2.8 per cent.
Among member states for which data are available, the highest increases in industrial production were registered in Ireland (+12.7 per cent), Estonia (+4.9 per cent), Croatia (+3.2 per cent) and Germany (+2.9 per cent), and the largest decreases in Malta (-5.0 per cent), Romania (-2.3 per cent) and Finland (-2.1 per cent).
The eurozone increase of 2.1 per cent is due to production of capital goods (+3.9 per cent), energy and non-durable consumer goods (+2.4 per cent), durable consumer goods (+1.3 per cent) and intermediate goods (0.9 per cent).