The eurozone's industrial production fell 0.7% in November, far worse than economists were expecting, Reuters reports.

The latest data released by Eurostat on Wednesday, Jan 13 morning shows a contraction far higher than the consensus forecast of 0.3%.

Year-on-year data also failed to meet expectations, with production growing just 1.1%, instead of the expected 1.3%.

When it comes to individual nations within the single currency, Portugal, Malta, and the Netherlands were the worst fallers. Their production fell by 4.9%, 3.7%, and 3.1% respectively.

Industrial production in the eurozone is still lagging behind recorded levels from five years ago, and it is still absolutely miles less than the levels seen before the financial crisis began.

Wednesday's release follows on from an equally poor set of data from the UK, where industrial production fell by 0.7% in the month of November. That news scorched any hope that UK GDP growth accelerated in the final quarter of 2015.