2018.04.1221:58:00UTC+00Eurozone Industrial Production Fell for a 3rd Straight Month

A wide-ranging measure of eurozone industry suddenly declined in February, echoing surveys of businesses that imply the bloc's economic expansion may have eased in the first quarter.

According to the European Union's statistics agency, the output of factories, mines and utilities fell 0.8 percent in February, the largest month-to-month decline since the end of 2016. The drop was unexpected, since economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal last week had expected a 0.2 percent rise.

Industrial production also dropped in December, by 0.1 percent, and in January by 0.6 percent. That three-month stretch of declines was the longest since the three months from September through November 2012, a year before the eurozone economy embarked on its current expansion.

Declines were the most distinct in capital and durable goods. The former dropped 3.6 percent, while the latter fell 2.1 percent. Energy was doing better, up by 6.8 percent. Data from individual countries released previously suggested cold weather may have provided a boon to the energy sector.

Industrial production was still up 2.9 percent from February 2017, but the rate of growth weakened sharply from 3.7 percent in January and 5.2 percent in the final month of 2017.

Rapidly rising factory output was one of the main drivers of the eurozone economy's surprisingly solid performance in 2017, when it marked its quickest growth in a decade. If sustained, a decline in output would make it difficult for the economy to expand at a similar rate in 2018.