"The outlook for the industrial sector is bleak"
- Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group
Euro-area industrial production unexpectedly rose in February, even as the region's economy continued to slide into a recession. Production increased 0.5 per cent from January, said the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg on Thursday.
"The outlook for the industrial sector is bleak," Martin van Vliet, an economist at ING Group in Amsterdam, said in an e-mailed note.
"Some companies will undoubtedly benefit from the ongoing growth in Asia and the improving situation in the U.S. But with the fiscal squeeze in the euro zone intensifying and the debt crisis very much alive and kicking, any (further) upturn in euro-zone industrial activity later this year will likely be modest."
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 1.15 per cent to 257.36. Germany's DAX Index gained 1.03 per cent and France's CAC 40 Index advanced 0.99 per cent. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 1.34 per cent to 5,710.46.
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