Industrial output in Europe's core eurozone rose in February, beating analyst forecasts as the economy built on a strong January performance, official data showed on Wednesday. The Eurostat statistics agency said February industrial output in the 16-nation eurozone rose 0.9 percent from January when it jumped 1.6 percent, revised down from the originally given 1.7 percent.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a February gain of 0.2 percent. February industrial output jumped 4.1 percent compared with a year earlier after an increase of 1.0 percent in January. For the full 27-nation bloc, output rose 0.7 percent from January and was up 3.5 percent from February 2008. Analysts said the figures confirmed that the manufacturing sector was recovering after months of negative figures.