PHOTO
Italian industrial output rose by 0.5% in June from the month before, national statistics agency ISTAT said on Friday, confounding gloomy predictions for the euro zone's third-largest economy.
Analysts had expected the monthly index to fall by 0.3%. "The positive trend is spread across almost all sectors, with the exception of consumer goods", ISTAT said in a statement. The increase follows a surprise fall in Italy's GDP, which contracted by 0.3% on a quarterly basis between April and June, ISTAT said on Monday. Industrial output readings, however, were negative over a broader period of time.
In the three months to June, industrial production was down by 1.2% compared with the January-to-March period, the statistics office said. On a work-day adjusted year-on-year basis, output fell by 0.8% in June, after a revised 3.5% decrease the month before, it added. ISTAT said that the year-on-year downturn was common to all industrial sectors, except for investment goods (+7.6%), and was particularly marked for energy goods (-9.4%). In May, Italian industrial production had rebounded after four consecutive monthly falls, growing month-on-month by a revised 1.7%, from 1.6% communicated by ISTAT last month.
ISTAT gave the following details: INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION JUN MAY APR Mth/mth pct change (adjusted) +0.5 +1.7r -2.0 Yr/yr pct change (adjusted) -0.8 -3.5r -7.4 Yr/yr pct change (unadjusted) -0.8 -3.5r -10.2 (r) indicates revised figures ISTAT provided the following breakdown by broad product group in June: adjusted month-on-month percent change. Consumer goods -0.1 Investment goods +1.5 Intermediate goods -0.4 Energy goods -0.3 (Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Angus MacSwan)