Italian industrial production continued its recovery in March this year, increasing by 0.4 percent month on month and rising by 3.1 percent year on year. In February, the Italian industrial production index recorded 1.4 percent growth on month-on-month basis and was up 2.3 percent compared to the same month last year.
According to the figures posted by ISTAT, Italy's national statistics office, the industrial sectors leading the revival in March were machine building and plant-making (+16.5 percent), metallurgy and metal products manufacturing (+7.0 percent) and construction of means of transport (+6.7 percent) - all comparisons are with March 2010.
In Q1 2011, the Italian industrial production index decreased by 0.1 percent compared to Q4 2010, but still rose by 1.9 percent on year-on-year basis.