French industrial output surges unexpectedly in October

PARIS (Reuters) - French industrial output rose unexpectedly in October, blowing past forecasts as production of pharmaceutics and cars surged, figures from the INSEE official statistics agency showed on Friday.

Industrial production rose 1.9 percent from September in the biggest monthly increase in six months. It followed an increase of 0.8 percent in September, which was revised up from the 0.6 percent originally reported.

The October result smashed not only the average forecast of a decrease of 0.1 percent in Reuters' poll of 24 economists, but also topped the highest estimate for an increase of 0.5 percent.

The pharmaceutical industry saw output surge 8.2 percent in October while car production jumped 5.7 percent, helping to offset a slowdown in refining.

The following are the main figures given by INSEE (percentage changes). The year-on-year figures compare the last three months with same period a year earlier and three-month figures compare the last three months with preceding three months.

(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Laurence Frost)

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