Japanese vs. European Production

Japanese and European industrial production figures for July showed the diverging levels of collapse and (in the case of Japan at least) recovery.

Japan

RTT News reports the stabilization seen after the monumental collapse in Japan:

A report from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed that industrial production grew 2.1% month-on-month in July, revised up from the initial estimate of 1.9%. Annually, production was down 22.7%.

Monthly growth in shipments was revised to 2.4% for July from 2.3%, while inventory dropped 0.3% compared to a 0.2% fall estimated initially. Compared to July 2008, shipments and inventory plunged 22% and 10.6%, respectively.

Europe

While the production collapse wasn't nearly as large in Europe as in Japan, we aren't yet seeing a rebound off of lows. Reuters reports:

Euro zone industrial output fell in July and employment dropped again in the second quarter, pointing to continued weakness in the economy despite signs that euro zone recession may be ending.

Industrial output in the 16 countries using the euro fell 0.3 percent month-on-month in July for a 15.9 percent year-on-year fall, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat said on Monday.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected a 0.2 percent monthly decline and a 16.6 percent annual drop.

The year-on-year numbers, however, showed clearly the contractions in output are becoming smaller. In June, production was 16.7 percent lower than a year earlier and in May it was 17.6 percent, better than the 21.3 percent in April.

Source: Eurostat / METI.GO