In April, the industrial sector registered a recovery with a year-on-year nominal increase of 7.3% in its turnover index, according to data released this Tuesday by the National Institute of Statistics. This evolution contrasts with the 12% drop seen in March.
Excluding the energy sector, turnover recorded a growth of 6.9%, reversing the 12.6% drop in the previous month. The domestic and foreign markets contributed to this recovery, with the domestic market growing 3.9% and the foreign market increasing 13%, compared to declines of 10.7% and 13. 9%, respectively, in March.
The growth of the industrial sector was driven by several key segments. Intermediate goods increased by 2.5%, contributing 0.8 percentage points (pp) to the global index. This is an improvement compared to March, when intermediate goods recorded a drop of 16.5%. Consumer goods and energy recovered from declines of 10.1% and 9.6%, respectively, seen in March, to growth rates of 9.8% and 9% in April. Their joint contribution to the global index was 4.6 pp, contrasting with 4.7 pp in March. Investment goods recorded growth of 11% in April, compared to the drop of 8.7% observed in March, contributing 1.9 pp to the global index. The industry turnover index had a monthly variation of 1.1%, compared to 17.1% in April 2023.
Sales in the national market increased by 3.9% in April, year-on-year, reversing the 10.7% decline in the previous month. Excluding the energy sector, the increase was 5.6%. Consumer goods went from a decrease of 8.9% in March to an increase of 7.2% in April, contributing 1.8 pp to the global index. Intermediate goods registered a year-on-year increase of 2.2%, a recovery compared to the negative contribution of 5.7 pp in March. Investment goods registered an acceleration in growth to 11%, contributing 1.3 pp; energy registered a slight increase of 0.3%, recovering from a fall of 9.7% in March. The monthly variation in sales in the domestic market was −1.1%, contrasting with 15.1% in the same period.
Sales to the foreign market increased by 13% in April, recovering from a decline of 13.9% observed in March. Excluding energy, foreign sales grew 8.4%. Energy recorded growth of 87.3% in April, contributing 5.1 pp to the overall performance of the external market. Consumer goods and investment goods reversed the declines recorded in March, with consumer goods growing 13.5% and 11%, respectively, contributing 6.8 pp as a whole, highlighting the division of manufacturing motor vehicles, trailers, semi-trailers and components, which went from a reduction of 20.2% in March to a growth of 10.1% in April. Intermediate goods recorded an increase of 2.9%, improving their contribution of 1.1 pp compared to the negative 5.6 pp in March. The monthly variation in sales in the foreign market was 4.7% in April, contrasting with the 20.2% drop seen in the same period last year.
Employment in the industrial sector increased by 0.2% in April, after a slight decrease of 0.2% in March. Hours worked increased by 9.3% in April, after a fall of 8.5% in March. Compensation growth slowed slightly to 6.2%, compared to 6.8% in the previous month. Monthly variations in employment, wages and hours worked were +0.1, +0.5% and +0.9%, respectively.
