Weak manufacturing points to eurozone slump The single currency bloc was dragged down by Germany, where industrial production fell by 2pc in the month and raised fears that even the eurozone's economic powerhouse is being swamped by the crisis. Overall, industrial production for fell by 0.8pc in April on the previous month - the seventh monthly decline in the past eight months - and by 2.3pc compared with last year. "The fall can hardly be seen as anything other than bad news for the euro area and takes the level of production down to its lowest since September 2010," Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said. Of particular concern was a 2.6pc drop in the production of capital goods, such as plant and machinery, which indicates weak investment by business in the face of the region's ongoing crisis. Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics added that the "figures provided a further indication that the euro-zone's narrow escape from technical recession in the first quarter will not last very long ... even Germany's super-competitive industrial sector has contracted." The European Central Bank has forecast the region to shrink by 0.1pc this year. While Germany helped bolster the region in the first quarter, indicators have since weakened. Eurozone services and manufacturing output contracted at the fastest pace in almost three years in May and German business sentiment dropped more than economists had forecast.