The positive trend of industrial production in Europe has continued for the sixth consecutive month, according to the data published by Eurostat for March. The growth is equivalent to 0.4% in the Euro zone, and 0.3% in the EU-25. Over the past year the increase has been respectively 3.8% and 3.7%. The countries that have registered the best monthly variations are Lithuania (+7.4%), Portugal (+6.1%) and Ireland (+5.5%). Germany (-1.7%), Greece (-0.5%), Denmark (-0.1%) and Italy (-0.1%) are the only States presenting a negative trend. The good result is especially due to intermediate goods, whose growth was of the order of one percentage point, compensating for the erratic trend of energy production, non-durable consumer goods and investment goods. On an annual basis, the growth is equivalent to 4.7% for the Euro zone and 5% for the European Union as a whole.
