Industrial Production In Five Countries

Five countries--Italy, Ireland, India, Kazakhstan and Mexico--reported February data on industrial production today.  One, Kazakhstan reported data for March.   We have put the various indexes on a common basis, 2003=100, so that growth of production can be compared.  Production in Italy in February, for example, at 84.8, was still well below its level of 100 in 2003.  And although production in Ireland has increased sharply in the last two months, it is only 20% above its 2003 level after seven years.  Industrial production data in Italy and Ireland since 2003 are shown in the first chart.

Industrial production in India and Kazakhstan declined 0.25% and 0.68% in February from January, but it has been increasing over the past year and is 15.0% and 10.4%, respectively, ahead of January, 2009.   Incidentally, production in Kazakhstan rose in March.  Both India and Kazakhstan have grown strongly in the past seven years and production is now 73% and 56%, respectively above their 2003 levels of production. 

In contrast to the performance of industrial production in India and Kazakhstan, that in Mexico, the other emerging country reporting today, has recently shown some improvement but it has grown only 10% since 2003.  Industrial production data since 2003 for the three emerging countries are shown in the second chart.

It should be noted that a common index base of production among countries enables one to compare the growth of production among countries, but it says nothing of the magnitude of output in the various countries.