Spanish industrial production continues to slow down in May

Spanish industrial production continued to slowdown in May, dragged down by a decline in energy output.

In seasonally and calendar-adjusted terms, total output improved by 0.9 percentage points, Spain's national statistics office, INE, reported.

That left the year-on-year rate of change at 1.6%, which was down from April's pace of 2.1%.

Economists had penciled-in a rise of 1.1% month-on-month and 1.6% year-on-year.

In May 2017, total industrial production was bounding ahead by 4.7%, versus a dip of 0.4% in May 2016.

Energy production was weakest last month, shrinking by 1.4% in comparison to April, while output of consumer durables increased by 2.1%.

Output of intermediate capital goods meanwhile rose by 1.9%, that of capital goods by 1.7% and that of consumer non-durables edged higher by 0.1%.