Swings and roundabouts in industrial production

Industrial production in Portugal was up 2% in June and outpacing the 1.2% registered by the rest of the Eurozone according to figures released by Eurostat on Wednesday.
However, in consecutive monthly terms, Eurozone industrial production dipped 0.4% whilst Portugal recorded a 2.1% fall and the second largest fall in the 28 member European Union.
As regards the EU, industrial production grew 1.7% in annualised terms but fell back 0.2% month-on-month.
This reflects some fairly major swings in the European Union economy with Ireland, for example, putting on 27.6% growth in annualised terms even while experiencing a 2% contraction in June in month-on-month terms.
Meanwhile, Denmark experienced both 7.6% growth on June 2014 while also notching up a 4.2% advance on May.
Meanwhile, the Portuguese Consumer Price Index recorded an annualised inflation rate of 0.8% in July according to figures released by the National Institute of Statistics on Wednesday.
This represents no change from the rate prevailing in June and sees a continuation of the return to positive inflation after a long period of either zero or negative inflation.
This resulted in the overall 12-month average inflation rate moving to 0.1% and up from the zero rate returned through to June.
In turn, the Harmonised Consumer Price Index, which provides for a European level comparison, closed July on 0.7% in year-on-year terms, down from 0.8% in May but 0.5% higher than the Eurostat estimate for the rest of the Eurozone.
VP/JS/KAR //KAR.