Official figures show that industrial output in the euro zone rose in February, ahead of economists' forecasts, as the economy built on a strong January performance.
The Eurostat statistics agency said February industrial output rose 0.9% from January, when it jumped 1.6%. Economists had expected only a 0.2% rise in February.
February industrial output in the euro zone jumped 4.1% compared with a year earlier.
For the full 27-nation EU, output rose 0.7% from January and was up 3.5% from February 2008.
