Industrial production drops

Industrial production in December decreased by 10.9 and 9.9 per cent when compared to November and the corresponding month of 2008, respectively.

The National Statistics Office said that when comparing December with the previous month, the index of industrial production decreased by 10.9 per cent to 89.2 points.

All the main industrial groupings reported a drop in production when compared to the previous month, with the exception of the production of energy, which rose by 4.1 per cent over November.

The production of goods in these sectors experienced a decline ranging from 5.6 per cent in intermediate goods to 19.4 per cent in capital goods.

Year-on-year data show that industrial production fell by 9.9 per cent, from 99.1 points in December 2008.

The production of consumer durables registered an increase of 36.9 per cent over December 2008.

On the other hand, all the other main industrial groupings experienced a drop ranging from one per cent in energy to 26.5 per cent in capital goods.