Data from the European statistics office Eurostat, released on Monday, showed that in the Eurozone, industrial output suffered a significant decline of 4.1% month over month in March, missing market expectations.

The figure was down 1.4% year over year. Throughout the entire UE, industrial production fell 1.3% year over year, and 3.6% monthly.

It marked the largest decline since the pandemic-induced plunge. A sharp drop in the production of capital goods drove the decline, such as buildings and equipment used to produce products and services, which fell 15.4%. There was also a decline in output for intermediate goods, which declined 1.8%, energy, which fell 0.9%, and non-durable consumer goods, which fell 0.8%.

Eurostat reported that the majority of the major economies in the bloc which use the euro currency experienced significant declines. Ireland endured the worst monthly drop in output, losing 26.3%. Germany declined by 3.1%, as France and Italy lost 1.1% and 0.6% respectively. Spain’s production ran counter to the trend, growing at 1.4%.

For months, economists have been warning that the forecast for industrial output was declining, as weaker demand due to the persistent cost of living crises throughout Europe was offsetting the effects of the declines in the cost of energy on energy-intensive production activities.