By EFE,
Madrid : Industrial production in Spain fell 17.4 percent in July compared with the same month in 2008, the National Statistics Institute has said.
The 12-month decline in July – the 15th straight month of falling industrial output – was worse than the 16 percent drop registered in June.
Production of capital goods plunged 26.7 percent in July from 12 months earlier, while output of intermediate goods was down 20.8 percent and that of consumer products, 10.7 percent.
Output of consumer durables dropped 31.7 percent from the levels of July 2008, the institute said.
Among sectors, only chemicals, up 14.2 percent, and pharmaceuticals, with a rise of 9.6 percent, enjoyed 12-month gains.
Spain’s industrial production for the first seven months of this year was off more than 20 percent from the same period in 2008.
A total of 84,985 people were added to the country’s jobless rolls in August, following three consecutive months of declining unemployment, putting the total number of people without work in Spain at 3.6 million, the government said last week.
The number of people without jobs has risen by 1.09 million, or 43.44 percent, in the past 12 months, the labour and immigration ministry said.
Spain has the highest unemployment in the European Union, according to the most-recent figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency.
Eurostat said in a report that the Spanish jobless rate was 18.1 percent in June.
Spain’s economy is in its first recession since 1993, with the construction and service sectors having been especially battered by the global financial crisis.