The inter-annual rate for industrial production grew 2.5%, in the A.C. of the Basque Country in October 2004 according to EUSTAT data. In absolute terms, the inter-annual variation was –4.9%, since this year October had three working days less than last year. Accumulated growth for the first ten months of the year came to 3.5% in homogenous terms and 3.8% if we do not take into account the calendar differences between the two years.

For October 2004 the positive inter-annual variations in absolute terms, which is to say without taking into account that this October had three working days less than last year, corresponded to the sectors of "Textiles and clothing" (6.9%), "Paper, printing and graphic arts" (4.0%), "Electric energy, gas and water" (1.6%) and "Rubber and plastic" (1.5%); conversely, the sectors that experienced the most negative inter-annual rates were "Metal and non-metal minerals" (-21.2%), "Leather and footwear industry" (-21.0%), "Non-metal industry" (-16.7%), "Other manufactured" (-15.4%) and "Food industry" (-13.8%), among others.

For the first ten months of the year as a whole, the highest accumulated growth rates in relation to the same period of 2003 corresponded to "Electric energy, gas and water” (20.7%), "Oil refining" (10.5%), "Electric material" (6.8%), "Rubber and plastic" (6.0%) and "Transport material" (4.9%). Negative rates mainly affected the sectors of "Leather and footwear industry" (-15.0%), "Metal and non-metal minerals" (-12.2%), "Non-metal industry" (-11.1%) and "Other manufactured" (-7.3%), among others.

According to the classification of goods by economic destination, October 2004 saw a decline in the inter-annual rates of Consumer Goods (-2.7%) due to the decrease experienced by Consumer Durable Goods (-8.3%), although Consumer Non-Durable Goods contributed slight growth (0.5%). There was also growth in the inter-annual rates of Intermediate Goods (1.1%), somewhat more in the case of Energy (3.7%) and especially Capital Goods (6.4%), in each case homogenous figures of inter-annual comparison.

Over the first ten months of the year as a whole, the Energy branch obtained 17.7% accumulated growth, in absolute terms, Capital Goods increased 3.4%, a slightly higher rate than that of Intermediate Goods which rose 2.6%, while Consumer Goods decreased 0.4%, where the share between Durable and Non-Durable was -3.4% and 1.1% respectively.

By province, the inter-annual variations of the General Index followed differing patterns, growing 7.0% in Alava in homogenous terms, 1.3% in Bizkaia and 1.3% in Gipuzkoa. For the first ten months of 2004 as a whole, the highest accumulated growth rates corresponded to Alava with 8.3%, followed by Bizkaia with 2.8% and lastly, Gipuzkoa, which obtained 1.6% growth.