French industrial production fell by 1.8 percent month-over-month in September 2018, after a downwardly revised 0.2 percent rise in August and worse than market consensus of a 0.3 percent drop. It was the largest decline in industrial activity since January, as output fell 2.1 percent for manufacturing output (vs a 0.4 percent gain in August), driven by production of food products & beverages (-1.4 percent vs 0.5 percent) and machinery & equipment goods (-3.5 percent vs 1.1 percent); while manufacturing of transport equipment dropped further (-3.8 percent vs -3.1 percent). Contrarily, production rebounded for coke & refined oil products (0.9 percent vs -1.3 percent) and increased for construction activity (3.8 percent, after showing no growth in the prior month). In addition, output declined less for mining and quarrying, energy, water supply, waste management (-0.1 percent vs -1.3 percent). Industrial Production Mom in France averaged 0.04 percent from 1990 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 4 percent in November of 2005 and a record low of -4.90 percent in November of 2008.
Industrial Production Mom in France is expected to be 0.40 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Industrial Production Mom in France to stand at 0.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the France Industrial Production MoM is projected to trend around 0.40 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.