EU chemicals production falls slightly in October

17 December 2004 12:09  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Chemicals production in the European Union (EU) was virtually unchanged in October compared with the same period last year, according to figures released Friday by statistics agency Eurostat.

In the 12-member eurozone, however, output fell 0.7% against October last year.

The virtually static output figures were in marked contrasted with overall industrial production in the EU, which rose 1% across all 25 members states and in the eurozone.

October's figures also reversed the recent trend in which chemicals have performed significantly better than overall EU industrial production.

 

This relative trend reversal was also reflected in October output when compared with September this year. EU chemicals output fell 0.6% month on month, and was down 1.2% in the eurozone. Overall industrial output also fell but was down only 0.3% across the entire EU and fell just 0.5% in the eurozone.

 

European industrial output

 

	Oct 2004 vs Oct 2003 (%)	Oct 2004 vs Sep 2004 (%)
EU chemicals	+0.1	-0.6
Eurozone chemicals	-0.7	-1.2
EU industry	+1.0	-0.3
Eurozone industry	+1.0	-0.5

Member states of the EU are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the UK.

The 12 countries in the eurozone are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and The Netherlands.

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