The Industrial Production Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country fell 1.9% in May 2002 with regard to the same period the previous year. The sharp fall in Oil refining (-42.7%) and Mining Industries (-32.5%) marked the General Index of Industrial Production in May. With this data, the accumulated rate for the first five months of the year showed a 0.2% increase on the same period the previous year, in homogeneous terms of working days.

In May 2002 the most positive inter-annual variations corresponded to the sectors of "Food Industry" (10.1%), "Transport Material" (6.1%), "Textiles and clothing (5.0%), "Other manufactured" (4.6%), "Paper, publishing and graphic arts (3.4%) and "Electric energy, gas and water" (3.4%),

Among the sectors that registered significantly negative inter-annual growth rates were the above mentioned "Oil refining" (-42.7%) and Mining Industries (-32.5%). Negative variations were also registered in May by the sectors: "Non-metal Industry" (-10.5%), Metallurgy and metal articles (-6.6%) and "Machinery" (-4.2%), among others.

By the economic destination of goods, the Index increased in May 2002 for Consumer Goods (2.7%) and decreased for Capital Goods (-3.2%) and Intermediate Goods (-1.7%).

The performance of the General Index of Industrial Production differed in the three Provinces, although it decreased in all three: Álava (-1.0%), Gipuzkoa (-1.2%) and Bizkaia (-2.9%).

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