Eurozone industrial production declines in September, beats market consensus

Industrial production in the eurozone fell during the month of September, beating what markets had initially anticipated.

Eurozone industrial production declined 0.8 percent in September following a revised increase of 1.8 percent the previous month, which was originally reported as a gain of 1.6 percent. The monthly decline was marginally stronger than the consensus decline of 1.0 percent for the month, data released by statistics agency Eurostat showed Monday.

There was an annual increase of 1.2 percent, which was in line with expectations and followed a 2.2 percent gain in the year to October. On a monthly basis, there were declines across all sectors except non-durable consumer goods and output of durable consumer goods declined by 5.6 percent, although this followed a robust 4.8 percent gain previously as volatility continued.

On an annual basis, all sectors recorded positive growth except for durable consumer goods with the strongest expansion of 1.9 percent seen in non-durable goods.

Further, the currency zone’s industrial production has made net gains since the beginning of 2013, although the overall pace of expansions has remained very weak with cumulative gain of less than 5 percent during that period. Overall output in the Eurozone also remains close to 10 percent below the peak level seen in the first half of 2008.

At 11:30GMT, the EUR/USD currency pair was trading 0.77 percent lower at 1.0770, compared to previous close of 1.0854, while at 11:00GMT, the FxWirePro's Hourly Yen Strength Index remained neutral at -31.67 (lower than the benchmark of -75 for bearish trend). Look for further trends on http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

Meanwhile, Japan's benchmark stock index, Nikkei 225 was 1.71 percent higher at 17,672.62 at the time of closing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.