Haver Analytics
Haver Analytics
Global| Jun 14 2010

More Industrial Production Data: Japan, Hong Kong And The Euro Area

Summary

Industrial production in most countries has shown improvement in the first few months of this year. Today data for the first quarter for Hong Kong and for April of this year for Japan and the entire Euro Area were released. The data [...]


Industrial production in most countries has shown improvement in the first few months of this year.  Today data for the first quarter for Hong Kong and for April of this year for Japan and the entire Euro Area were released.  The data are shown in the attached chart.  For comparability, the original index for Hong Kong based on 2008=100 was changed to 2005=100, the base of the other two series, using the "advanced function" in DLX. In addition since the data for Hong Kong are for the manufacturing sector only, we have used data for the manufacturing data for Japan and the Euro Area instead of their total industrial production figures that includes mining, quarrying, electricity, gas and water supply and construction. 

Of the two countries and the Euro Area, manufacturing production in Japan was the first to decline and has experienced the sharpest decline and recovery.   In April, manufacturing production in Japan was 95.9 (2005-100) 34.7% above the low point of 71.2 in February, 2009.  The comparable figures for the Euro Area are 9.7% and 88.2 in May 2009.  The data for Hong Kong are quarterly, and therefore, somewhat less volatile than the monthly figures.  By the first quarter of this year, manufacturing production in Hong Kong was 88.1 (2005=100) or 3.3% above the low of 85.3 reached in the 3rd quarter of 2009. 

IP: Manufacturing (SA, 2005=100) Apr
10
Mar
10
Feb
10
Jan
10
Dec
09
Nov
09
Oct
09
Sep
09
Aug
09
Japan 95.9 94.7 93.6 94.2 90.3 88.0 85.8 84.4 82.9
Euro Area 96.6 96.1 94.3 93.6 91.8 91.5 90.1 90.1 89.1
      Q1 10     Q4 09     Q3 09
Hong Kong -- -- 88.1 -- -- 85.4 -- -- 85.3

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