Industry business turnover falls 2.6% in May

Industrial business turnover in Portugal suffered a like-for-like fall of 2.6% in May after having posted a zero variation for April according to data from the National Statistics Institute. (INE)

Excluding energy, the volume of business fell from 1.6% in April, suffering a 1.9% fall in May.

The INE also refers to falling sales in the national market (down 3.6%) after having fallen 2.6% the previous month, contributing with -2.2% towards the fall in the total index.

Overseas sales which had grown 4.2% in April, fell by 0.9% in May, having contributed with -0.3%.

Intermediate goods fell 2.4% (-6.2% in April), contributing to a total index variation of -0.8%. Consumer goods and investment goods, in turn, fell 0.5% and 3.2% respectively, the resulting contributions of which were -0.1% and -0.6% respectively.

In the case of the energy grouping, there was a fall of 4.9% in May, compared to an increase of 5.7% in April, and contributing with -1.1%.

In monthly terms, the volume of business in industry suffered a 2% reduction in May. Employment and hours worked suffered like-for-like falls of 0.1% and 1.7% in the same month after increases of 0.2% and 0.8% in April, while wages grew by 6.4%, slowing by 0.6% on the previous month.