Press Release 07/02/2017

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX, DECEMBER 2016

Industrial activity in the Basque Country rose by 4.4% in December 2016

The industry balance in 2016 closed with an accumulated increase of 2.3%

Industrial production of the Basque Country in December 2016 was up by 4.4%, compared to the same month of 2015, in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, according to Eustat data.

Compared to the previous month, November 2016, the industrial production of the Basque Country fell by 0.3%, once seasonal effects had been corrected.

There were positive and negative variations in the index of the major industrial sectors in December 2016 compared to December 2015. Capital Goods were up by 8.3% and Intermediate Goods saw an increase of 3.6%. Consumer Goods overall rose by 1.7%, as a result of the increase in Consumer Non-Durables, which experienced a growth of 2.5%, as Consumer Durables posted a drop of 0.9%. Energy, meanwhile, fell by 0.1%.

The month-on-month variation in December 2016 compared to November 2016 registered negative results for Capital Goods, which were down 2.3%, and Energy, which decreased by 2.4%. Intermediate Goods, on the other hand, registered a rise of 0.9% and Consumer Goods rose by 1.0% overall due to the upsurge inConsumer Durables, which posted an upturn of 5.7%, as Consumer Non-Durables dropped by 0.7%.

Among the largest sectors in Basque industry, those that saw the most significant growth of over 10% in the month of December 2016 with regards to year-on-year variations, were: Rubber, Plastic and other Non-Metallic Products, which posted a positive variation of 14.8%, Transport Material, with a 12.2% rise and Machinery & Equipment, which was up 10.8%. On the other hand, the Electrical Material & Equipment sector registered a fall of 9.1%.

By province, the year-on-year performance of the Industrial Production Index for the month of December showed an upward trend in all three: it rose by 5.3% in Gipuzkoa, by 4.2% in Bizkaia and 2.9% in Álava. The month-on-month performance was positive in Gipuzkoa, where it increased by 1.4%, whilst in Bizkaia and Álava it fell by 1.5% and 1.1% respectively with regards to November 2016.

Industrial activity balance for 2016: Capital Goods lead growth with an increase of 8.8%

The 2016 balance of the Industrial Production Index of the Basque Country registered an increase of 2.3% with regards to the previous year.

By sector, the trend in the Transport Material stood out, posting an increase of 16.6% year-to-date. Other sectors with significant growth in 2016 were Pharmaceutical Products (5.3%) and Electronic and Computer Products (9.9%). On the other hand, the Extraction Industries (-16.8%), Electrical Material & Equipment (-5.8%) and Electricity, Gas & Steam (-5.2%) sectors registered the worst results over the year.

According to the classification by economic destination of goods, Capital Goods stood out, posting an accumulative growth of 8.8%, with Intermediate Goods growing by 0.9% and Consumer Goodsposting an overall increase of 0.2%. Within the latter, the accumulated growth posted by Consumer Non-Durables was 1.8%, whilst Consumer Durables fell by 4.2%. Energy presented negative performance in 2016, with a drop of 4.3%.

The accumulated variations in 2016 for the three provinces were also positive: in Álava the index rose by 7.8%, in Gipuzkoa it was up by 1.0% and Bizkaia saw an increase of 0.8%.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62 Further press releases on Industrial production index of the Basque Country (IPI) Databank on Industrial production index of the Basque Country (IPI)