The Industrial Production Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country
grew 12.1% in April 2002 with regard to the same month the year before, as this
year had three more working days than last year, according to Eustat data. Once
corrected for the effect of the labour calendar, in order to compare the data
in homogenous terms, the inter-annual rate for April shows a –1.2% variation.
With this data, the accumulated data for the first four months of the year there
was a 1.0% increase on the same period the year before, in homogenous terms
of working days.
In the month of April 2002 the most positive inter-annual variations
corresponded to the sectors of "Food industry" (9.3%), "Electric energy, gas
and water" (7.0%), "Transport material" (4.7%), "Chemicals industry" (4.2%)
and "Other manufactured" (3.1%).
The sectors with the most negative inter-annual growth rates
were "Metal and non-metal minerals" (-25.2%), "Leather and footwear industry"
(-9.8%), "Non-metal industry" (-6.6%), "Metallurgy and metal articles" (-6.0%)
and "Rubber and plastic" (-5.8%).
According tot he economic destination of goods, rates increased
in the first four months of 2002 for Consumer Goods (4.1%) and Capital Goods
(2.2%), with a slight decrease in the growth rate of Intermediate Goods (-0.1%).
The performance of the General Index of Industrial Production
was different for the three provinces, falling 3.0% in Gipuzkoa and 0.2% in
Alava and remaining stable in Bizkaia (0.0%), in April last. The highest accumulated
increase in the first four months corresponded to Alava (2.9%), ahead of Bizkaia
(1.2%), while Gipuzkoa obtained a negative variation of –0.2%.