Euro zone, Polish growth strong late in 2016

Industries across the euro zone increased their output in November, according to a Reuters report on Thursday. Germany ended the year with its strongest growth in five years, data showed on Thursday, pointing to an economic spurt that may be arriving earlier than some ECB policymakers expect. Euro zone industrial output surged 1.5 percent on the month and 3.2 percent y/y, as firms stepped up production before Christmas. Both figures were far better than expected. The news matched an increase in Italian, French and Polish industrial production, also reported on Thursday as being robust. In Poland, industrial production was up 3.3 percent in November (y/y), and 3.6 percent in December. The German statistics office, meanwhile, estimated growth in the euro zone's largest economy was around 0.5 percent for the fourth quarter and expanded by 1.9 percent in 2016, the strongest rate in five years. Economists said these figures added to the evidence that euro zone gross domestic product will have picked up in the last quarter of last year.