Eurozone industrial output edges up

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BRUSSELS, Oct 14 (AFP): Industrial production in the eurozone rose by one percent in August, official Eurostat data showed on Monday, in a tentative sign the currency bloc's struggling economy is beginning to revive. The better-than-expected rise, which was most pronounced in Germany and bailed out Portugal, comes a month after industrial production dropped by one percent. And compared to last year, industrial production in August sank by 2.1 percent in the eurozone and fell 1.6 percent across the whole 28-member European Union. Across the EU, industrial production inched up by 0.5 percent in August from a month before. Last week the International Monetary Fund raised its growth outlook for the bloc to a still recessionary minus 0.4 percent and said the bloc was only "crawling out of recession". The European Central Bank meanwhile has expressed doubts that the eurozone, which ended an 18-month recession in the second quarter this year, has definitely turned the corner. At Capital Economics in London, economist James Howat reiterated that caution, commenting that despite the production rise in August "the eurozone industrial sector is unlikely to have provided much of a boost to the wider economy in the third quarter." The increase was higher than the consensus forecast of an increase of 0.8 percent, "but the rise was worryingly dependent on Germany, where production surged 1.8 percent in August," he noted. The rise in French output "barely reversed big falls in the preceding three months, and Italian production fell for the second month," he added.