Industrial production, Spain
In April, the Industrial Production Index (IPI) fell 33.6% year-on-year. This is the biggest decrease since reporting began, in a context marked by the impact of the lockdown measures to contain the spread of Covid-19.
According to goods types, the biggest decreases were with consumer durables (-67.5%) and capital goods (-57.4%).
Production fell in all areas of activity, especially in the car industry (-92%) and clothing manufacturing (-77.2%).
The least affected industries were the manufacture of pharmaceuticals (-0.3%) and the paper industry (-3.1%).
Private sector credit, Spain
Credit for non-financial corporations increased by 3.1% year-on-year in April to €920 billion. This increase is the biggest since June 2009 (3.8%) and is mostly explained by companies increased need for finance as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
By funding instruments, loans by credit institutions (54% of the total) registered a year-on-year increase of 5.8%, followed by foreign loans (33% of the total), with an increase of 0.3%. On the contrary, representative debt values (12% of the total) fell 0.7% year-on-year.
For its part, household credit fell 0.6% year-on-year to €697 billion, a fall that has not been registered since January 2018.
Companies creation, Spain
In April, 2,311 companies were created, 73.4% less than a year ago, and the lowest figure this month since reporting began.
By sector, most of the newly created companies were in the trade industry (19.7% of the total), and in the property development, financial and insurance sectors (15.3%).
On the other hand, 401 companies were dissolved in April, 73% less than the average for this month over the past 4 years (1,487 companies).
Industrial production, Germany
In April, German industrial production registered a monthly decrease of 17.9% due to the business activity standstill which came as a result of Covid-19 containment measures.
By business type, the biggest fall was in the production of capital goods (- 35.3%), followed by -13.8% for intermediate goods, and -8.7% for consumer goods.
On the other hand, activity indicators such as manufacturing PMI forecasts that industry will continue its downward trend, with figures even further removed from its expansionary phase.
Labour market, US
In May, with the start of the reopening of the economy, employment recovered 12.1% of the jobs lost in April (19.5 million jobs), with 2.5 millions of jobs being created.
By sectors, the service industry was responsible for more than 75% of the new positions. The hospitality and leisure industries created 1.2 million new jobs, followed by the education and health sectors (424,000 jobs) and retail trade (268,000). For its part, construction and manufacturing registered increases of 464,000 and 225,000 positions. On the other hand, 585,000 jobs were lost in the public sector.
As a result of this development, the unemployment rate fell 1.4 pp to 13.3% of the active population. However, this is still far from the levels before the crisis (around 3-4%).
Foreign trade, China
In May, the development of foreign goods trade in China improved slightly. Exports exceeded market expectations, while imports fell significantly, hit by poor domestic demand and depreciation of the Yuan.
Specifically, exports fell 3.3% year-onyear (compared to the -6.5% estimate by Bloomberg), to $206.8 billion (0.8% of its GDP).
Imports fell 16.7% (compared to the -14.2% estimate) to $143.9 billion. As a result, China’s trade surplus increased 52.7%, to $62.9 billion (0.2% of its GDP), the biggest one-month figure since reporting began.