Italy's Industrial Output Shows Surprise Increase

Italy's industrial production rose unexpectedly by 1.7 percentage points in August from the level in July, official data published on Wednesday showed.

Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been expecting a monthly decrease of 0.5 percentage points and a yearly decrease of 10.1%.

On a 12-month comparison, however, output was down 5.2 percentage points.

The monthly rise comes after two straight months of decrease and is welcome news for Italy, which entered recession in the second half of last year.

The breakdown of the figures showed a 4.0-percentage point increase in consumer goods and a 2.3-point rise in equipment goods.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012