Spanish industrial production plunges deeper

Industrial production in Spain plunged by a fifth in May from the same month last year, official data showed yesterday, deepening its decline in one of the EU countries worst hit by the crisis.

The 20.5 per cent drop follows a seasonally adjusted decline of 19.7 per cent in April and 24.7 per cent in March, which was the sharpest drop since such figures were first calculated in 1992.

In the first five months of the year industrial production plummeted 21.6 per cent from the same period in 2008, the International Statistics Institute said.

Formerly one of the eurozone's chief engines of economic growth and job creation, Spain suffered an abrupt change of fortunes last year when the outbreak of the global financial crisis hastened a correction that was already underway in its once-buoyant property sector.

The Spanish economy, the fifth largest in Europe, entered into its first recession in 15 years at the end of last year.