Press release 04/12/2019

INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION INDEX, OCTOBER 2019

Industrial activity in the Basque Country rose by 0.6% in October 2019

The Industrial Production Index saw overall growth of 0.8% in the first ten months of 2019

Industrial production of the Basque Country in October 2019 was up 0.6% compared to the same month of the previous year, in homogeneous terms of the working calendar, according to Eustat data. The balance for the first ten months of 2019 closed with overall growth of 0.8% on the same period of 2018.

Compared to the previous month, September 2019, the industrial production of the Basque Country fell by 0.2%, once seasonal effects had been corrected.

The performance of the index in October 2019 compared to October 2018 registered upward trends in the major industrial sectors according to their economic destination, with the exception of Intermediate Goods, whose index was down 3.1%. On the other hand, Energy was up by 14.2% and both Capital Goods and Consumer Goods as a whole rose by 0.9%. Among the latter, Consumer Non-durables rose by 2.4%, whilst Consumer Durables fell by 4.8%.

The month-on-month variation, October 2019 on September 2019, was also similar for these sectors although, in this case, negative in all cases except Energy, which rose by 2.6%. Intermediate Goods fell by 1.0%, Capital Goods were down by 0.3% and Consumer Goods as a whole dropped by 0.6%, as a result of the 3.1% decrease in Consumer Durables, whilst Consumer Non-durables saw no variation.

Among the largest sectors in Basque industry, those that saw the most significant growth in the month of October 2019 with regards to year-on-year variations were: Electricity, Gas & Steam with 23.9%, Timber, Paper & Graphic Arts with 2.8%, Electrical Material & Equipment with 2.1% and Transport Material 1.7%.

In contrast, decreases occurred in the following sectors: Metallurgy & Metal Products with a year-on-year drop of 2.6% and Machinery & Equipment which fell by 2.1%.

By province, year-on-year performance of the Industrial Production Index for the month of October showed positive results in Bizkaia, where there was a rise of 3.4%, whilst in Álava and Gipuzkoa there was a fall of 0.3% and 1.8%, respectively.

For further information:

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