DATA SNAP:EuroZone Oct Indus Output -5.3%YY,15Yr Record Fall
    By Joe Parkinson and Nicholas Winning    Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES  


LONDON (Dow Jones)--Euro-zone industrial production fell significantly more than expected in October, dropping at its fastest pace in fifteen years, data from the European Union's Eurostat statistics agency showed Friday.

Industrial output fell 1.2% on the month and 5.3% on the year in October. That's the largest year-on-year drop since July 1993. In September, production fell a revised 1.8% on the month and 2.7% on the year.

The sharp fall in industrial output is yet further evidence that economic growth in the euro zone is slowing sharply in the fourth quarter after contracting in the third quarter.

Economists were expecting industrial output to drop 1.0% on the month and 3.6% on the year, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey. September's data were revised from declines of 1.6% on the month and 2.4% on the year estimated in November.

Declines in industrial output were significant in all of the euro zone's leading economies, with France racking up a decline of 2.7% from September. In Germany, production fell 2.0% on the month, the Spanish measure dropped 1.9%, while in Italy industrial output fell 1.2%.

Web site: www.europa.eu.int/en/comm/eurostat

-By Joe Parkinson and Nicholas Winning, Dow Jones Newswires, +44 207 842 9498; joe.parkinson@dowjoens.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2008 05:00 ET (10:00 GMT)


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