Industrial production in Italy dropped by 1.5 percentage points in September over one month, official data showed on Friday.
Industrial output was down 4.8 percentage points on a 12-month comparison.
Analysts had been expecting a fall after the surprise rise in industrial production of 1.7 percentage points registered in August.
Researchers from Intesa Sanpaolo bank said they had been expecting a drop of 2.0 percentage points over one month and 7.9% over 12 months but also a global stabilization of production in the third quarter.
The drops were particularly severe for the energy sector (-6.5%), consumer goods (-2.5%) and intermediary goods (-0.4%).
Copyright 2012 Agence France-Presse
