Paris, Nov 10 (IANS): France's industrial production fell by 2.7 percent in September from a month earlier due to sharp decline in refining activities and the ailing auto industry hit by global economic recession, official data showed.

France, one of the world's largest exporter of manufactured goods, saw its manufacturing output fall by 3.2 percent mainly due to 12.1-percent drop in coke and refined petroleum products "because of maintenance operations in a refinery", according to report by the national statistics bureau Insee.

Auto industry suffered a setback in September following 16.2 percent-drop, pulling down the total transport sector by 11.3 percent after it had risen by 7.7 percent in August, reported Xinhua.

"Due to a fall of oil production and a decrease of beverages production, after the heat-wave observed in August", output of food processing activities went down by 1.6 percent while of mining and energy businesses registered a slight rise of 0.6 percent over the period.