PARIS, Dec 9: French industrial production fell sharply in October compared with September, casting doubt on the strength of a widely forecast economic recovery and revealing difficulties for the French auto sector, analysts said on Friday. Data from French statistics office INSEE showed that industrial production fell by 2.5pc in October compared with September after growth of 0.6pc in Sept from the figure for August.

On the foreign exchange market in London, analysts said that the fall of French production had been a factor behind a weakening of the euro on Friday Commenting on the industrial production data, an analyst at Natexis Banques Populaires, Alexandre Bourgeois, said: “That industrial production fell by 2.5 per cent (in October), this is without any doubt a huge surprise and a clear disappointment.” French carmakers, which have seen a fall in sales since the start of the year, stopped a number of their assembly lines during October and laid off workers temporarily.—AFP