EU, eurozone industrial production up 4.1% in July: Eurostat

Industrial production in both the European Union (EU) and the eurozone rose by 4.1 percent in July compared to June, according to the EU's statistical office Eurostat on Monday.

The highest month-on-month increases were registered in Portugal (11.9 percent), Spain (9.4 percent) and Ireland (8.3 percent), while decreases were reported in Denmark (minus 4.9 percent), Latvia (minus 0.8 percent) and Belgium (minus 0.5 percent), Eurostat said.

The month-on-month increases were mainly due to the relaxation of measures taken to counter the COVID-19 outbreak, which made the economies plummet during the hard lockdown in March and April.

Since May, as the containment measures have been gradually lifted, a slow but steady recovery of industrial production has been observed. Overall, the increase was 9.5 percent in the eurozone and 9.6 percent in the EU in June.

However, a year-on-year comparison still shows a sharp decrease in industrial production: in July 2020, it dropped by 7.7 percent in the eurozone and by 7.3 percent in the EU.