Spanish industrial production grew strongly in March, after logging modest gains since the end of last year, on the back of robust output in the capital goods industry, preliminary data from the statistical office INE showed Friday.
The seasonally adjusted industrial production index grew 4.5 percent year-on-year following 0.1 percent gains each in the previous two months.
Economists had forecast a fall of 0.1 percent in March.
Among the main industry groups, production surged 13.2 percent in the capital goods manufacturing.
Output in the consumer goods and intermediate goods industries grew 4.1 percent each. Energy sector output rose 1.1 percent.
Compared to the previous month, the industrial production rose for a second straight month in March, up 1.5 percent after a 0.7 percent increase in February.
On a non-adjusted basis, industrial production grew 5.3 percent year-on-year in March.
Meanwhile, the latest purchasing managers' survey by S&P Global showed this week that Spain manufacturing activity re-entered the contraction territory in April due to a fresh fall in new orders and a slowdown in output growth.
The HCOB manufacturing PMI dropped below the 50-neutral mark to 49.0 from 51.3 in the previous month.
