Industrial output, one of the most important economic indicators, stepped up its growth pace in February, supported by demand from abroad, rising by 12.7% from the same period of last year.
The upward trend confirmed analysts’ expectations, extending last year’s trend. In January, industrial output advanced by 10.6% against the same month of 2010.“As we anticipated, the first quarter indicates a strongly positive trend for this sector, which is likely to add around 0.7 percentage points for the increase of seasonally-adjusted quarterly GDP in the first quarter. Such a contribution could be enough for GDP to expand in the first quarter, despite the weak values of the many indicators pointing to a low internal demand,” ING Bank analysts believe.
According to National Statistics Institute data, industrial output in February rose by 12.6% from the same month of 2010 and by 12.7% adjusted to the number of working days and seasonality.