BRUSSELS, June 12 (Reuters) - Euro zone industrial production shrank by more than a fifth in April compared to a year earlier, data showed on Friday, a new record contraction pointing to continued economic weakness.
Production fell 21.6 percent in the 16-country area, the European Union's statistics office said, exceeding the previous record decline of 19.3 percent logged in March and economists' expectations of a 20.2 percent drop.
Month-on-month, production fell 1.9 percent, far more than the 0.4 percent dip expected by economists in a Reuters poll.
The monthly and annual fall was led by plunging output of intermediate and capital goods in a sign investment continued to decline.
The data contrasts with more optimistic signs from Japan, where April output gained 5.9 percent month-on-month in the biggest monthly rise for more than half a century, and from China, where factory output rebounded more than expected in May.
Industrial production accounts for roughly 17 percent of euro zone gross domestic product, and the grim April data could mean the slowdown in economic contraction in the second quarter could be less pronounced than expected. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski, editing by Dale Hudson)