Industrial output for the seventeen countries that share the euro steadied into growth during the first month of the year after data from the end of 2010 was revised to show modest expansion, according to The Wall Street Journal. On Monday, the European Union reported that industrial output in the eurozone added 0.3% in January from the previous month, moving annual growth to 6.6%, which roughly matched economists’ expectations. Moreover, data for December was revised up to a 0.3% monthly gain from the 0.1% decline initially reported that now correlates with 8.8% year-over-year growth.
The modest January growth and the revision to December’s figures suggest that industrial sector in the region is stabilizing, giving Peter Vanden Houte of ING confidence that gross-domestic product will be up “around 0.7% quarter-on-quarter” during the first three months of 2011. The latest growth was led by a rapid acceleration by French industry, which moved up to 1.1% growth from 0.2% previously and taking up slack for the leading German industrial sector, which slowed to 0.1% growth from 1% the prior month.