In January, according to INSEE, industrial production in France fell by 1.9%. Manufacturing production fell by 1.8%. The category of extractive industries, energy and water fell by 3%, but it was the manufacture of transport equipment that caused the fall. It fell by 2.6% in the automotive sector and by 9.5% in the ” other transport equipment which includes aeronautics. It is nevertheless up 10.9% over one year.
To a lesser degree, the food industry also dragged down industrial production with a drop of 1.6%. Also over one month, the fall in production was more brutal in the pharmaceutical industry (-11.6%) and to a lesser degree in chemicals (-3.5%).
Manufacturing of capital goods is on the rise
On the other hand, the manufacture of capital goods increased by 1%, driven by that of computer, electronic and optical products which gained 2.6%. It also increases by 3.6% in coking and refining. Metallurgy was up slightly by 0.3% and construction was almost stable over the month, with +0.2%.
Finally, INSEE warned that it had revised the composition of its indices reflecting industrial production as every year to ” adapt them to economic or technical developments ».
An even steeper decline in Japan
When we compare ourselves, we console ourselves. Industrial production in Japan fell sharply in January (-4.6% over one month), according to provisional data published on Tuesday by the government, penalized by a weakening in global demand and by the Lunar New Year holidays in Asia. This is the first decline in this indicator in three months. The consensus of economists from the Bloomberg agency expected a less pronounced decline (-2.9%), following rising 0.3% in December.
Exports of Japanese manufactured goods fell 3.1% in January over one month, and inventories fell 0.9%, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (Meti). Motor vehicles, machine tools and electronic parts and appliances were the main contributors to the decline in Japanese industrial production in January.
(With AFP)
