After the brief relief of the previous three months, Italian industry is once again limping in May. The seasonally adjusted manufacturing index decreased by 0,6% compared to the previous month. On an annual basis, however, the index increased in trend terms by 1,8%. These are the latest data provided by Istat. As for the quarterly average, the March-May period was in any case positive, recording a growth of 1,6% compared to the previous three months.
The average calculated over the first five months of the year reveals instead that production grew by 2,4% compared to the same period last year. In detail, in May there was a growth trend for the groupings of capital goods (+4,3%) and intermediate goods (+3,1%).
On the other hand, the consumer goods (-1,5%) and energy (-0,4%) sectors were down. The industry sectors characterized by the most marked growth were the manufacture of machinery and equipment (+10,5%), mining (+7,3%), metallurgy and the manufacture of metal products excluding machines and plants (+6,6%).
The sector that instead recorded the largest trend decrease was that of the manufacture of chemical products (-6,8%). As regards the industrial production of motor vehicles, the decline on an annual basis was 12,2%. However, in the January-May period the figure is positive (+3,1%).
