Like the European one, the Spanish industrial sector is not lifting its head due to the latest blows of the Covid pandemic in the supply chains, which have not finished recovering, and the effects of the sharp rise in inputs, energy or the shortage of components, among other difficulties. The Industrial Production Index (IPI) registered a decrease of 1.8% in July compared to the same month in 2022. This drop in the index, three points higher than the 1.5% decrease registered in the month of June, has State conditioned by the reduction of activity in the energy sector.
According to the data published this Friday by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), industrial production has thus gone four months without taking flight. Specifically, activity in the secondary sector contracted 4.2% in April and subsequently remained stable in May before declining in the following two months.
The downturn in the energy sector, in which production has been 10.9% below the data from a year ago, has had a great effect on the figures recorded in the IPI this month, but the contractions in other sectors, such as of durable consumer goods (7.4%) and intermediate goods (2.3%) have also been notable.
Vehicle manufacturing grows 23%
On the contrary, the production of capital goods grew by 6% and that of non-durable consumer goods by 0.7%. (36.9%) and the leather and footwear industry (14%).
On the contrary, the sector that drove the indicator up the most was the manufacturing of motor vehicles, which experienced an expansion of 23%, the second activity that grew the most only behind the branch of other extractive industries (31.4% ).
In July, industrial production increased in eight autonomous communities, especially in Aragón (5.5%) and Castilla y León (4.7%), while it decreased in another nine, mainly in Murcia (13.3%) and Cantabria (11.4%).
Once the data are corrected for seasonal and calendar effects, the fall in industrial production in July remains at 1.8%, a decrease 1.4 points lower than in June (3.2%). In monthly terms, industrial production grew by 0.2% in July compared to June, a month in which it had fallen by 1%, thanks to the boost in intermediate goods and capital goods.
