According to the statistics released by France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), the country's manufacturing production in January this year increased slightly by 0.2 percent compared to December 2011, following a revised month-on-month decrease of 1.3 percent recorded in December.
In January, France's production in manufacture of metals and metal products rose by 0.6 percent, the production of the motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers industry decreased by 1.6 percent, while the output of the construction industry decreased by 0.4 percent, all compared to the previous month of December.