Spanish industrial output drops 6.5%

Spanish industrial output fell faster in February, dropping by 6.5 percent from the same month a year earlier following a decline of 4.9 percent in January, official statistics released on Wednesday showed. The latest drop was in large part the result of weakening production of durable consumer goods, the data showed. The seasonally-corrected figure which was released by the national statistics institute Ine, has fallen steadily since August 2011, while Spain, the fourth biggest eurozone economy, has been in recession since the second half of that year. The constant drop in industrial output eased somewhat in October, when it declined by 3.1 percent on an annualised basis, before posting plunges of 7.0 percent in November and 7.1 percent in December. All sub-categories showed declines in February, an Ine statement said, with production of consumer goods posting a sharp drop of 10.2 percent for durable goods and 3.3 percent for non-durable goods. From: AFP