MaltaMedia.com

Provisional data published Thursday by the NSO show that the February index of industrial production increased by 0.5 per cent over January 2010 and by 10.6 per cent over the corresponding month of 2009.

When comparing February 2010 with the previous month, the index of industrial production increased by 0.5 per cent to 96.9 points. At the main industrial grouping level, the production of intermediate goods and consumer goods went up by 1.1 and 4.3 per cent respectively.

The rise in consumer goods was attributed to a 7.2 per cent increase in the production of non-durable consumer goods. On the other hand, the production of energy, capital goods and consumer durable goods declined by 9.2, 5.7 and 18.5 per cent respectively.

Year-on-year data show that industrial production rose by 10.6 per cent, from 87.6 points in February 2009. This rise was attributed to the production of intermediate and capital goods which rose by 29.7 and 17.0 per cent respectively.

On the other hand, consumer goods declined by 4.3 per cent on account of a 3.4 and 4.4 per cent decrease in the production of consumer durable and non-durable goods respectively. Moreover, the production of energy decreased by 5.2 per cent, from 86.9 points in February 2009.