French Industrial Production Slumps in January

By William Horobin

PARIS--French industrial production dropped further than expected in January as manufacturing output sank, figures showed Monday.

Industrial production in the euro zone's second largest economy fell 1.2% in January from December, figures from national statistics bureau Insee showed. The decline was significantly bigger than the 0.2% contraction economists had predicted in a poll by Dow Jones Newswires.

Manufacturing production alone fell 1.4% in January from December.

Still, Insee revised the December figure for industrial production upward, to a 0.9% rise on the month from a previous reading of a 0.1% contraction.

Industrial production for the three months through January was 1.5% lower than in the previous three months, Insee said.

Write to William Horobin at william.horobin@dowjones.com

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