Industrial production in Italy surprisingly increased further in August. Production increased by 2.3 percent compared to the previous month, as reported by the Istat statistics office in Rome on Tuesday. Experts had expected a slight decline of 0.1 percent on average.
In addition, the reading for July was revised upwards. Industrial production rose 0.5 percent month-on-month in the previous month, after a 0.4 percent increase was previously reported. Compared to the same period last year, production in August increased by 2.9 percent.
There was above-average growth in the manufacture of textiles and pharmaceutical products. On the other hand, there was a month-on-month decline in coal production and in the chemical industry. (dpa)