French Industrial Production Falls 0.5% in September

After a contraction of 0.4% in August, industrial production in France fell by 0.5% in September, the national statistics office said on Nov. 10.

Output by the auto industry, a motor of economic activity in France was particularly hard hit, plunging 3.1%.

Manufactured output, production excluding output by the energy, food and farming industries, slumped by 0.8% after falling 0.5% the previous month.

Overall, industrial production from July to September dropped by 0.8% from the figure for the previous three-month period and by 2.5% from the equivalent figure last year.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008