The Industrial Production Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country fell 0.7% in August 2002 with regard to the same month the previous year, according to EUSTAT data. This drop becomes an increase of 2.3%, when measured in homogeneous terms of working days, as last August had one day less than the month of August 2001. With this data, the accumulated rate for the first eight months of the year shows a 1.3% decrease on the same period the previous year, in absolute terms. Once this is corrected for the calandar effect, this drop is reduced to 0.5% in homogeneous terms.
In August 2002 the most positive inter-annual variations, above average, corresponded to the sectors of "Leather and footwear industry", "Transport material", "Metal and non-metal minerals", "Paper, publishing and graphic arts", "Metallurgy and metal articles, "Non-metal industry" and "Machinery", among others.
Among the sectors with the most negative inter-annual rates are "Oil refining" (-27.1%), "Other manufactured" (-15.8%), "Electric energy, gas and water" (-13.9%), "Textiles and clothing" (-8.7%), "Rubber and plastic" (-4.3%) and the "Chemicals industry" (-2.9%), mainly.
The balance for the first eight months of the year, in absolute terms, shows that the Consumer Goods Index increased 1.1% and the Capital Goods Index fell (-2.1%) as did the Intermediate Goods Index (-1.0%).
The variations in the General Index of Industrial Production for the month of August 2002 with regard to the same month the previous year differed in the three provinces: Álava (+3.0%), Bizkaia (-2.9%) and Gipuzkoa (+0.6%).
The balance for the first eight months of the year, corrected for working days, shows the provincial performance to be similar, but with slightly different intensities. In Bizkaia there is a fall of 1.6%, followed by Gipuzkoa with a lower fall of 1.4% and, lastly, Alava with a more exiguous 0.4% decrease.