The Industrial production improved 0.9% year-on-year in February, confirming a positive start to the year after the increase in January, according to data from the Manufacturing Industry Physical Volume Index (Ivfim), which produces the INE.
Meanwhile, if the data is considered without refinery, The variation would reach 7.5%, due to the negative impact of the closure for maintenance of the La Teja plant in Ancap,which is close to reopening.
In turn, the Industrial production had the calendar as an ally, since February 2024 had a greater number of business days, within the framework of a leap year.
Looking to the future, on the one hand there will be a negative “calendar effect”, while in April this factor will be positive, due to the respective dates of the Tourism Week between this year and last, warned economist Aldo Lema.
At the same time, it is expected that The Tile will be active again in the coming weeks, so it could provide a boost to activity, partially in April and more notable in May.
What were the main items that influenced industrial production?
When analyzing by sector, it was key UPM 2, since the division with the greatest positive impact on the interannual variation of the industrial product is “Manufacturing of Paper and Paper Products”, with a variation of 49.5% and an incidence of 5.8% in the total.
They were followed by “Elaboration of Food products”, with a variation of 6.3% and incidence of 2.6%; and “Manufacture of Motor Vehicles, Trailers and Semi-trailers”, with an increase of 22.6% and incidence of 0.4%
On the other hand, as expected due to the stoppage of La Teja, the division with the greatest negative impact was “Refinery of Petroleum”, with a drop of 98.2% and negative impact of 7.5%. Further back appeared “Elaboration of Drinks”, with a decrease of 9.8% and incidence of 0.7%.
Finally, the INE survey showed that the Hours Worked Index per workers (IHT) registered an interannual improvement of 4.3%, while the variation was 1% with respect to the Employed Personnel Index (IPO).
Source: Ambito
