Press release 08/05/2019

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX, MARCH 2019

Industrial activity in the Basque Country fell by 4.6% in March 2019

The industrial production index saw a growth of 0.2% in the first quarter of 2019

Industrial production of the Basque Country in March 2019 was down by 4.6% compared to the same month of 2018, in homogenous terms of the working calendar, according to Eustat data. The balance for the first three months of 2019 saw growth of 0.2% on the same period of 2018.

Compared to the previous month, February 2019, the industrial production of the Basque Country fell by 3.0%, once seasonal effects had been corrected.

There were positive and negative variations in the index of the major industrial sectors in March 2019 compared to March 2018. Energy was up 1.7%, but Intermediate Goods fell by 6.4%, Capital Goods dropped 3.8% and Consumer Goods as a whole were down 1.5%. Within these, Consumer Durables, which fell 13.8%, determined the rate of the downturn, since Consumer Non-Durables were up 1.7%.

The month-on-month variation, March 2019 on February 2019, showed a downward trend for all the major industrial sectors. Capital Goods were down 4.9%, Intermediate Goods fell by 2.2% and Energy posted a drop of 0.3%. Consumer Goods as a whole decreased by 4.2%, since Consumer Non-Durables and Consumer Durables posted drops of 5.0% and 4.0%, respectively.

Among the largest sectors in Basque industry, those that saw growth in March 2019 with regards to year-on-year variations were: Electricity, Gas & Steam up 2.2% and Timber, Paper & Graphic Arts with a rise of 0.5%.

In contrast, the most significant downturns were in the sectors of Metallurgy & Metal Product, which posted a year-on-year regression of 8.1%, Transport Material, down 6.8%, and Machinery & Equipment, with a year-on-year decrease of 4.9%.

By province, the year-on-year performance of the Industrial Production Index for the month of November was positive in Bizkaia, where it rose by 0.5%, but in Álava there was a decrease of 9.1% and Gipuzkoa recorded a fall of 6.6%.

Methodological note: in March 2019, the base year used as a reference for the Industrial Production Index (IPI) was changed. The new IPI base year of reference is 2015. This base change has signified the updating of the representative panel of participant companies of the industrial sector in the Basque Country as well as the weighting structure for the various levels of disaggregation In turn, the series corrected for calendar effects and the series adjusted for seasonal effects since the 2015 base year are obtained using the software JDemetra+ 2.2.1, following the Eurostat recommendations for carrying out seasonal and calendar adjustments in the official statistics of the European Union.

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tel: 945 01 75 62