Spanish industrial output down for second month

Industrial production in Spain, which is struggling to emerge from an economic crisis, fell for the second consecutive month in October due largely to a plunge in output of consumer durable goods, official data showed Friday.

Output declined 1.9 percent from the same month last year, after falling 1.6 percent in September, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

Production of consumer durable goods plummeted 11.5 percent while capital goods dropped 7.5 percent.

Over the first 10 months of the year, industrial production, adjusted for seasonal variations, was up 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year, the INE said.

The October data was “disappointing, and supports other key indicators which signal that the economy is failing to generate any recovery momentum after stalling in the third quarter,” analyst Raj Badiani of IHS Global Insight said in a research note.

“Clearly, business conditions remain tough for Spanish manufacturing firms and it appears that they continue to price aggressively to prop up demand. With input prices now rising sharply, firms’ profit margins are being squeezed.”

Production plunged 15.8 percent in 2009 as the country was battered by the economic crisis.

The Spanish economy slumped into recession in late 2008 due to the collapse of a property bubble and the global financial meltdown.

It emerged with tepid growth of just 0.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, 0.2 percent in the second and zero percent in the third.

The Socialist government this year introduced tough austerity measures in a bid to slash its soaring public deficit and ease fears of a Greek-style EU bailout of the economy.