Global| Apr 10 2007French Industrial Output Up Sharply in February
Summary
French industrial output was up especially strong rising by 1.1% and led by a 1.2% increase in the output of consumer goods. EU IP trends have been soft recently. Even Germany where conditions have been rather solid has showed some [...]
French industrial output was up especially strong rising by 1.1% and led by a 1.2% increase in the output of consumer goods. EU IP trends have been soft recently. Even Germany where conditions have been rather solid has showed some weakness in consumer goods output; of course Germany may still be fighting its way though some VAT effects early in the year. With this strong gain in February, France at least shows that one large EU country has some solid output growth in consumer goods. This has been led by autos where output is up by a strong 4.7% spurt in February alone.
For France the chart now shows some building momentum trends in place as the 3-mo growth rate is rising sharply and the six month pace is firming along with the Yr/Yr pace.
In February France demonstrates good growth across sectors. Auto output is especially strong. Consumer goods output is surprisingly robust as that sector had lagged. Capital goods output trends are simply steady and above the pace of 4%. Intermediate goods output has picked up in February.
| SAAR except m/m | Feb-07 | Jan-07 | Dec-06 | 3-mo | 6-mo | 12-mo |
| IP total | 1.1% | -0.2% | 1.0% | 7.7% | 1.6% | 2.6% |
| Consumer | 1.2% | 0.4% | 0.0% | 6.4% | 2.9% | 2.3% |
| Capital | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 4.8% | 4.4% | 4.6% |
| Intermediary | 1.3% | -1.2% | 1.4% | 6.3% | 1.2% | 3.5% |
| Memo | ||||||
| Auto | 4.7% | 0.4% | 1.5% | 29.9% | 3.9% | 4.5% |
Robert Brusca
AuthorMore in Author Profile »Robert A. Brusca is Chief Economist of Fact and Opinion Economics, a consulting firm he founded in Manhattan. He has been an economist on Wall Street for over 25 years. He has visited central banking and large institutional clients in over 30 countries in his career as an economist. Mr. Brusca was a Divisional Research Chief at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY (Chief of the International Financial markets Division), a Fed Watcher at Irving Trust and Chief Economist at Nikko Securities International. He is widely quoted and appears in various media. Mr. Brusca holds an MA and Ph.D. in economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from the University of Michigan. His research pursues his strong interests in non aligned policy economics as well as international economics. FAO Economics’ research targets investors to assist them in making better investment decisions in stocks, bonds and in a variety of international assets. The company does not manage money and has no conflicts in giving economic advice.
