French industrial output unexpectedly fell 1.9 per cent in August.
National statistics office INSEE announced a drop of 14.4 per cent in auto output for the month and said this was mainly responsible for the decline in overall industrial output. "The strong fall is almost totally due to a fall in automobiles," it said.
The fall was mainly due to the temporary closure of a PSA Peugeot Citroen car plant.
A PSA Peugeot Citroen spokeswoman confirmed the company had temporarily closed a plant in Mulhouse in northeastern France to prepare for production of a new Citroen model.
INSEE said industrial production excluding energy, agri-food businesses and construction, which it considers the best measure of manufacturing output, dropped 2.1 per cent in August versus the previous month and was up 2.7 per cent year-on-year.