Official figures show that industrial production across the 17 European Union countries that use the euro fell by 0.4 percent in January.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, added Tuesday that production for durable consumer goods in the eurozone fell by 1.4 percent, with capital good manufacturing dropping by 1.2 percent. Among the eurozone member countries that reported production figures, Germany registered a 0.4 percent decline, France a drop of 1.2 percent and Finland a fall of 4.1 percent.

The 17-country eurozone is currently stuck in a recession and is not expected to recover until the latter part of this year. Unemployment in the region is at an all-time high of 11.9 percent.

Industrial output across the wider 27-member EU also fell by 0.4 percent for January, Eurostat added.