Industrial production decreases in December

In December, industrial production decreased by three per cent from 94.1 points in December 2009, according to the latest statistics issued by the NSO.

This was generated by drops in the production of capital and consumer goods of 3.4 and 10.1 per cent respectively. Nevertheless the production of intermediate goods and energy rose by 1.6 and 0.9 per cent respectively.

The manufacture of food products fell by 17.2 per cent while the manufacture of beverages went down by 7.9 per cent.

Furthermore the manufacture of leather and related products and the manufacture of electrical equipment dropped by 78.3 and 84.9 per cent respectively. This was partly mitigated by a rise of 25.9 per cent in the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products, the NSO said.

Other important sectors that registered growth during the reference month were the manufacture of wearing apparel, the manufacture of rubber and plastic products and electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply which went up by 16.6,12.1 and 0.8 per cent respectively.