The Industrial Production Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country
grew 2.7% in December 2002, with regard to the same month the previous year,
according to EUSTAT data. Measured in homogeneous terms of working days, however,
the General Index of Industrial Production fell 1.5%, as last December had one
working day more than December 2001.
In December 2002, the most positive inter-annual variations
corresponded to the sectors of "Textiles and clothing" (17.0%), " Transport
material" (13.4%), "Chemicals industry" (11.1%) and "Rubber and plastic"
(6.0%).
Among the sectors that offered the most negative inter-annual
figures were firstly "Metal and non-metal minerals" (-18.1%), followed by "Other
manufactured" (-8.3%), "Electric material" (-6.9%) and "Non-metal industry"
(-4.6%).
Intermediate Goods and Capital Goods presented positive rates
of 7.9% and 7.7%, respectively last December, while Consumer Goods decreased
3.7% with regard to December 2001.
2002 BALANCE
The balance for 2002 shows a 0,7% decrease in the accumulated
rate of the General Index in comparison with the same period the previous year,
which when corrected for working days represents a 0.8% decrease.
The sectors that increased production over the year 2002 were:
"Transport material" (5.8%), "Timber industry" (4.5%), "Food industry" (3.4%)
and "Chemicals industry" (3.1%). On the other hand, the sectors that fell most
were: "Oil refining" (-14.0%), "Textiles and clothing" (-4.0%), "Metallurgy
and metal articles" (-2.9%) and "Machinery" (-2.7%).
Over the whole of 2002 Intermediate Goods and Consumer Goods
increased by 1.1% and 0.1% respectively, while Capital Goods fell by 1.8%.
In the balance for 2002, the performance by provinces was quite
different. Alava and Bizkaia grew slightly (0.5% and 0.1%, respectively), while
Gipuzkoa fell by 2.2% with regard to the year 2001.