A Mixed Picture of Industrial Production Trends Outside the United States

More data on industrial production in countries outside the U. S. were released today. The data are mixed. In the Pacific Rim, India reported an increase of 0.15% in May from April and a 6.35% rise over April 2003. Indonesia reported a sharp rice of 5.12% in the month of May which resulted in a 24.25% increase over May 2003.

In Europe, France showed an increase of 0.20%, or an annual rate of 2.4% in May from April and was 3.37% above a year ago.In Italy, however, industrial production was unchanged from April and was only 2.05% above April, 2003. In Ireland, where double digit increases in the annual rate of production were the norm from the time the country joined the Euro Zone up to 2002, industrial production is now declining. In May, industrial production was 3.96% below April and 0.33% below May of 2003.

Finally, Mexico reported that seasonally unadjusted industrial production increased 0.74% in May from April and was 2.11% above May, 2003. The year over year percent change in industrial production for Mexico has been positive for each month of the current year and suggests that the year over year increase for all of 2004 is likely to be positive for the first time since 2000.