Industrial production returned to growth in the EU last year, with the value of sold production rising by 2.9% at constant prices, new data from Eurostat has revealed.
The increase followed on from two consecutive annual declines, with production falling by 1.5% in 2023 and 1.9% in 2024.
Value of production
According to Eurostat, the value of sold industrial production increased from €5.869 trillion in 2024 to €6.090 trillion in 2025.
Production increased gradually between 2015 and 2018 before declining slightly in 2019 and sharply in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic affected industrial activity.
Production subsequently increased in both 2021 and 2022 across all industrial activity groups, the data showed.
Manufacturing activity
Among the five largest manufacturing activity groups, food products recorded the largest increase in the value of sold production in constant prices. Production of food products increased by 3.8% in 2025 compared with 2024, and was 11.2% higher than in 2015.
Machinery and equipment recorded the second-largest increase among the five groups, with sold production rising by 3.3% year on year. Motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers followed with an increase of 0.6%.
Two of the five groups recorded declines in 2025. Production of chemicals and chemical products fell by 1.4%, while fabricated metal products, excluding machinery and equipment, also declined by 1.4%.
The two latter groups were also the only ones among the five to record lower production values over the ten-year period since 2015, according to Eurostat. Read more here.
