Spain Industrial Production Moderates Its Fall In October And Is Almost Back To The Pre-Crisis Level

Spain industrial production

The General Index of Industrial Production (IPI) plunged 6.1% in October compared with a year earlier. This was an increase of more than five percentage points on September’s yearly decline (-0.6%), according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

With this year-on-year fall in October, industrial production has been in negative territory for ten months in a row.

All sectors recorded annual drops in production, especially capital goods (-9.6%) and non-durable consumer goods (-8.4%). These were followed by durable consumer goods, with a decline of 6.5%, energy, which cut its production by 3.8%, and intermediate goods by 2.8%.

The activities which saw the biggest fall in production in October were the leather and footwear industry, with an annual decline of 29.7%, and the manufacture of other transport equipment (-20.8%). The activities with increased annual production, including the manufacturing of rubber and plastic products (+4.6%) as well as of motor vehicles (+4.2%) are worth highlighting.

With a correction for seasonal and calendar effects, industrial production recorded a year-on-year fall of 1.6% in October, moderating the September decline by 1.5 points (-3.1%).

In monthly terms, and within the adjusted series, industrial production registered its sixth consecutive monthly increase, rising by 0.6%, three tenths of a percentage point less than in September. This growth is well off the double-digit increases recorded in May, June and July.

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The Corner
The Corner has a team of on-the-ground reporters in capital cities ranging from New York to Beijing. Their stories are edited by the teams at the Spanish magazine Consejeros (for members of companies’ boards of directors) and at the stock market news site Consenso Del Mercado (market consensus). They have worked in economics and communication for over 25 years.