Industrial production grew 2.5% in the A.C. of the Basque Country in February 2003 with regard to the same month in 2002, according to EUSTAT data. The accumulated growth rate for the fist two months of the year showed 1.3% growth with regard to the same period the year before in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, but a fall of 0.6% in absolute terms.

Quarterly inter-annual growth of the corrected Industrial Production Index

of the A.C. of the Basque Country 1997-2003

(*) Inter-annual growth corrected for January-February 2003

Source: Eustat

In February 2003 the most positive inter-annual variations corresponded to the sectors "Timber industry" (17.0%), "Machinery" (6.9%), "Transport material" (5.4%), "Rubber and plastic" (4.9%) and “Electric material” (3.8%).

The sectors that experienced the most negative inter-annual growth rates were "Oil Refining" (-22.9%), "Metal and non-metal minerals" (-15.2%), "Leather and footwear industry" (-9.6%), "Other manufactured" (-7.3%) and "Non metal industry" (-3.2%).

According to the economic destination of goods, inter-annual rates grew in the three divisions in February 2003, although to differing degrees: Intermediate Goods and Capital Goods increased 4.3% and 3.2%, respectively, while Consumer Goods registered much more discrete growth of 0.3%.

The evolution of the General Index Industrial Production also performed differently in the three provinces. On the one hand Gipuzkoa obtained higher inter-annual growth of 4.4%, followed by Bizkaia, with more moderate growth of 2.0%, while Alava (0.0%) did not vary at all with regard to February the previous year.

Table: FEBRUARY 2003. Variation rates (%) of the Industrial Production Index of the A.C. of the Basque Country

(*) Corrected for working days.

Source: Eustat