France's industry production grows by 1.3 pct in Jan: Insee

PARIS, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Industry output in France, the second eurozone economy, reported a 1.3 percent rise in January from a month earlier, data released by the national statistics institute Insee showed on Friday.

It was boosted by strong performance of manufacturing activities and energy and mining sector.

At the start of the year, manufacturing production, increased by 1 percent following a slight growth of 0.4 percent in December 2018. It was driven up by 5.9 percent growth in machinery and equipment goods.

France also saw output of energy and mining business bouncing back by 3.1 percent in January from 2.2 percent dip a month earlier, "particularly thanks to electric power generation, transmission and distribution..."

Meanwhile, Insee data showed a negative trend of construction and transport equipment which lost 5.4 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.

On quarterly basis, the country's manufacturing output went down by 0.3 percent over the last three months.