French manufacturing output continues to drop

French industrial output remained flat in November after hefty drops in the preceding two months, while manufacturing output continued to slide, but by a gentler 0.3 per cent, French statistics office INSEE said on Tuesday.

INSEE said total industrial output, excluding construction, was unchanged compared to October and revised the scale of the October fall to 0.8 per cent from the 0.7 percent dip initially reported.

That left overall industrial output levels down 0.2 per cent in the quarter to end-November compared to same point in 2000, when a sharp U.S. downturn had yet to hit Europe and France.

Production in the manufacturing sector, which strips out energy and agri-food industries as well, fell 0.3 per cent on a monthly basis, to leave manufacturing sector output down 0.9 percent for the quarter to end-November on a yearly basis.

Beneath the headline figures, the data showed that firms had started to boost output of consumer goods, with a rise of 0.1 per cent in November reversing the heavy falls of the preceding months, while car industry output continued to slide.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2 per cent dip in overall industrial output on a monthly basis.

For manufacturing output, they had predicted a 0.2 per cent dip in November.

Data on industrial output in the euro zone as a whole showed a hefty 1.4 per cent drop in October, the month that followed the suicide airliner attacks on the United States.

Many economists are questioning whether Europe may already have pulled through the worst of a downturn that began in early 2001 and worsened in the wake of the September attacks, but data available so far on November show the month was still weak.

German output data last week showed a bigger-than-expected 1.8 per cent fall in November output in the biggest euro zone economy, and Spanish output falls in the same month were also bigger than predicted.