Source: Sharecast
According to Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, industrial production slid 2.4% month-on-month.
That compares to the previous month’s 2.4% rise, and was worse than consensus, for a 1.7% decline.
Year-on-year, production increased by 0.8%, although that also missed forecasts, for a 1.4% improvement.
In the wider EU, it fell by 1.8% month-on-month.
There were falls across all industrial groupings, although the biggest was in energy, which recorded a 1.6% decline.
Among individual member states, in Germany – the bloc’s biggest economy – industrial production fell 1.9%, following a 2.5% uplift in March.
In Spain, industrial production was 0.9% lower, in France it fell 1.4% but in Italy it rose 1%.
Trade also weakened in the euro area in April, with the surplus falling to just €9.9bn from the previous month’s €37.3bn, according to first estimates from Eurostat also published on Friday.
Exports of goods eased 1.4% to €246.5bn, while imports nudged up 0.1%, at €233.1bn.
Analysts had been expecting a surplus closer to €18.2bn.
Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING, said: “After the strong surge in the first quarter on the back of the US front-loading of Eurozone goods ahead of higher tariffs, industrial production showed the expected reversal.
“The Eurozone manufacturing sector is currently highly affected by two main factors: the cyclical turning on the inventory cycle and Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“US tariffs and again highly elevated geopolitical risks provide reasons enough against any premature optimism. However, more fundamentally speaking, it looks like manufacturing has been bottoming out.
“After huge stockpiling in 2021 and 2022, and high inventories limiting production since then, the inventory cycle is showing the first signs of turning.”