Industrial production in the European Union fell month on month

Industrial production in the euro area and throughout the European Union (EU) fell month-on-month in May 2021, for the first time in three months. This was announced on Wednesday by the European statistical office Eurostat. According to the latest data, the performance of industry in the region that adopted the euro decreased by 1% in May 2021, after adjusting for seasonal effects, compared to April, when it increased by 0.6% month-on-month. Across the EU, May output fell by 0.9% month on month after a 0.5% increase in April. Year-on-year, industrial production rose by 20.5% in the euro area and by 21.2% in the EU in May. Statistics also showed that in May the production of non-durable goods fell the most in May compared with April, by 2.3%, followed by the production of energy (1.9%), capital products (1.6%) and intermediate goods (0.2%). The production of durable goods increased by 1.6%. In the EU, energy production fell by 2% month-on-month in May, non-durable goods by 1.7%, capital products by 1.6% and semi-finished goods by 0.1%, while the production of consumer durables increased by 1.5%. Among the Member States for which Eurostat data were available in May, Romania had the largest month-on-month decline in industrial production (-8.5%), Greece (-4.7%) and Ireland (-4.6%). And the highest increases were recorded in Lithuania (7.7%), Hungary (3.4%) and Finland (2.2%). Year-on-year, in May 2021 the production of durable goods in the euro area increased by 37.6%, capital products by 27.6%, intermediate goods by 24.1%, non-durable goods by 9.7% and energy by 7.1%. In the EU, the production of durable goods increased by 39.1%, capital goods by 29.6%, semi-finished goods by 24.2%, non-durable goods by 10.1% and energy by 7.1%. In May, industrial production increased year on year in all Member States for which data are available, with Hungary (40.3%), Slovakia (36.8%) and Poland (30.2%) reporting the largest increases.