- Prior 51.4
That’s a decent beat as Spanish manufacturing activity posts stronger growth in April. That’s the third month in a row now that it holds above the 50.0 threshold. Of note, both output and new orders saw firm rises on the month. HCOB notes that:
“Spain continues to shine as the top performer among major eurozone countries. While we have yet to see a recovery in
manufacturing across the eurozone, Spain sustained the growth trend it embarked upon in February and March. Indicators
suggest that the upswing in Spain’s manufacturing sector is driven by the ongoing improvement in demand both domestically
and internationally. Hence, it’s no surprise that industrial firms are ramping up their production for the third consecutive
month.
“The upbeat trend also spells good news for workers. Backlogs of work have grown for the third consecutive month in April,
coupled with high confidence in a favourable business outlook in the coming months, prompting industrial companies to
continue hiring. The only downside to this solid development in manufacturing is that company input prices are rising.
Surveyed companies report that the increase in input prices is driven by higher raw material prices. Due to the lack of pricing
power, this cannot be translated into rising output prices.
“Growth is evident across all sub-sectors. Consumer goods continue to exhibit the strongest growth in Spain’s industry, as
production and orders for consumer goods remain very robust and accelerated in April. However, both investment and
intermediate goods also showed improvements, as both were able to expand production. While orders improved for
investment goods, they declined slightly for intermediate goods.”