Data published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) showed that industrial production fell by 1.2% per year in March, almost offsetting the February increase (+1.3%, revised from +1.5%), and recording the largest decline since October 2023. Economists had expected an increase of 1.2%. On a monthly basis, industrial production fell by 0.7% after increasing by 0.7% in February.
INE said that compared with March 2023, the production of durable consumer goods fell by 4.2%, offsetting February's 0.2% increase. Energy production fell by 3.8%, accelerating compared to February (-1.5%), while capital goods production decreased by 1.4% after a 3.9% increase in February. Output growth slowed for non-durable consumer goods (3.7% vs 4.7%) and intermediate goods (0.1% vs 1.7%).