Last year's troubles continue to exert pressure on the euro. A series of weak economic data for the last month of 2019 is followed by a report on industrial production, one of the most important sectors of the eurozone economy. According to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency, industrial output plunged by 4.1% year-on-year and 2.1% from November. Analysts had not expected strong figures. Nevertheless, they had predicted more moderate declines of 3.9% and 2.3%, respectively. The already shaken single currency was weighed down by the weak industrial production data. The overall situation in the EU did not appear to be any different from the euro area. In December, the eurozone industrial output slipped by 2% on a monthly basis and 3.9% from a year earlier. Among member states, the results of the leading local economies turned out to be disappointing as well. Germany's industrial production decreased by 2.5% in December compared to the previous month and 7.2% year-on-year. French production output was down by 2.9% on a monthly basis and 3.2% on an annual basis. Italy's industrial production slumped by 2.7% and 4.3% on monthly and annual bases respectively. As a result, the set of dismal industrial data has forced experts to revise their euro area GDP growth forecast for the fourth quarter. Eurostat expects the economy to decline to 0.1% from 0.3% in the third quarter.
