French industrial output drops unexpectedly in February

Reuters

Published Apr 07, 2017 07:58

French industrial output drops unexpectedly in February

PARIS (Reuters) - French industrial output dropped unexpectedly in February from January on weak energy production due to unseasonably warm temperatures, figures from the INSEE official statistics agency showed on Friday.

Industrial production fell 1.6 percent month on month, coming on the heals of a decline of 0.2 percent the previous month, revised slightly from -0.3 percent in a first estimate, INSEE said.

A Reuters poll of 21 economists had an average forecast for an increase of 0.5 percent with estimates ranging from -0.9 to 1.4 percent. <FRIP=ECI>

The following are the main figures given by INSEE (percentage changes). The year-on-year figures compare the last three months with same period a year earlier and three-month figures compare the last three months with preceding three months.