Industrial activity falls by 20% in September in the Basque Country

Industrial production in the Basque Country fell by 20.0% in September 2009 compared to the same month of 2008 in homogenous terms of the working calendar, according to EUSTAT data.

Compared to the previous month, August 2009, industrial production in the Basque Country fell by 0.3%, once seasonal effects had been corrected.

By sector, and using the major industrial sector classification, the evolution of the index for September 2009 compared to September 2008 showed decreases in all sectors. Capital goods fell by 24.8%, Intermediary Goods by 22.6%, Energy was down by 15.1% and Consumer Goods decreased by 9.6%, mainly as the result of the drop in Consumer Durables (-21.5%), as Consumer Non-Durables fell much more moderately (- 4.8%).

Month-on-month fluctuations in September 2009, compared to August 2009, were negative in all sectors except in Consumer Goods, which were up by 0.2%, as a result of the increases in Consumer Durables (0.4%) and Consumer Non-Durables (0.1%). Energy fell by 2.2%, Intermediary goods by 0.6% and Capital Goods by 0.3%.

The pattern of the year-on-year evolution of the Industrial Production Index by province was negative in the three provinces: Álava decreased by 16.7%, Bizkaia by 20.0% and Gipuzkoa was down by 21.8%.

The accumulated year-on-year rates until September kept Álava with lower growth than in the other two provinces. Specifically, Álava posted a negative accumulated rate of -27.8%, Bizkaia of -22.3% and Gipuzkoa of -23.8%.

The month-on-month rates, September 2009 compared to August 2009, for the three provinces were negative for Bizkaia (-0.5%) and Gipuzkoa (-1.3%), while Álava registered an increase of 1.9%.