- Stephen Brown, Capital Economics
According to the European Union statistics office, the Euro zone industrial production jumped in April on a monthly pace after two consecutive falls, adding more than was estimated by economists mostly due to a surge in the output of durable consumer goods. The release shows, that Euro zone industrial production rose 1.1% for April following a 0.7% downtrend during the previous month. Also, the mentioned mark was above the consensus expectation which equals a 0.7% monthly gain. On a yearly period, there was also a 2.0% jump from 0.2%, showing the strongest gain since January. Following acceleration confirms that the sector is gradually gaining momentum; however, overall sentiment still is remaining cautious. It is worth to point out, that there were monthly increases across all categories. The most notable rise was shown by capital goods as well as durable consumer goods, which should bring some reassurance over trends within the manufacturing sector.
In the meantime, the Euro zone economy expanded during the first three months of the year, outperforming both the US and the UK. The major contribution to following result was made by factories' output, mines and utilities, which jumped by 1% compared with the final three months of 2015.
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