The General Industrial Production Index (IPI) declined by 4% year over year in April, marking a drop of 9.4 points from March and representing the largest setback since January 2021, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on Tuesday.
With the April decline, industrial production shifted back to negative year-on-year rates after a 5.4% rise in March.
Among goods, durable consumer products experienced the steepest fall in the fourth month, showing a year-over-year decrease of 9.9%. This drop is followed by intermediate goods at 6.5%, non-durable consumer goods at 4.6%, energy at 2.1%, and capital goods at 0.6% lower than the prior year.
By industry group, wood and cork products led the year-over-year decline at 23.9%, followed by leather and leather footwear at 18.2%, clothing manufacturing at 13.7%, and the paper sector at 13.4% lower than a year earlier.
On the positive side, other mining activities posted a standout gain of 41.8%, mining industries rose by 39.4%, and the manufacture of other transportation equipment increased by 17% year over year.
When adjusted for seasonality and calendar effects, industrial production fell by 0.9% in April, which is 5 percentage points lower than March when compared with April 2022.
Only two regions saw growth in industrial output
In April, the year-over-year rate of decline persisted across fourteen autonomous communities, with growth only in the Valencian Community and the Canary Islands at 2.4%, and Galicia at 0.1%.
The steepest decreases were recorded in La Rioja at 11.5%, Aragon at 9.2%, Extremadura at 8.6%, and Murcia at 7.5%, with a 7.4% overall drop for the sector compared with the previous year. An observed uptick appeared in Asturias in April 2022.
Monthly drop confirms a weaker trend in production
In the month-to-month comparison (April to March) and using adjusted series, industrial production fell by 1.8%, marking the largest monthly decline since March 2022 when it fell by 2.7%.
Within the adjusted series, the largest monthly decreases were seen in tobacco products and other mining industries, each down by 8.1%, and in furniture manufacturing, down by 5.7%.
Conversely, the biggest monthly gains occurred in the manufacture of other transportation equipment, up by 4.6%; leather and footwear, up by 3.6%; and the coke and oil refining sector, up by 2.1%.