PARIS, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- French industrial output reported a negative performance for the second straight month in December 2020, with that of manufacturing activities went down for the first time since April 2020, official data showed on Wednesday.

French industry's output decreased by 0.8 percent in December after a 0.7-percent drop in November. Output also decreased in the manufacturing industry in December by 1.7 percent after a 0.7-percent rise a month earlier, the INSEE said.

Compared to February 2020, the last month before the first general COVID-19 lockdown, output remained significantly lower in the manufacturing industry (minus 5.7 percent) as well as in the whole industry (minus 4.9 percent).

In December, France, one of the world's leading exporters of manufactured goods, registered a 30.5-percent slump in the output of coke and refined petroleum due to the shutdown of several refineries. The figure for November was minus 1.7 percent.

In December, the manufacture of machinery and equipment goods and that of food products and beverages dropped by 3.5 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively, while output in the mining and quarrying, energy and water supply categories increased by 4.3 percent and the manufacturers of transport equipment reported two percent growth, the INSEE said.

In the last quarter of 2020, France's overall industrial output decreased by 3.8 percent year-on-year. Over a year, manufacturing output decreased by 4.4 percent. Enditem

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