Spain to relax restrictions on 'non-essential activity' after April 9

Barcelona — Spain is not planning to extend a cut to "non-essential activities" beyond Easter weekend, although the current state of alert is likely to roll over for a further two weeks, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced.

This means industrial and other activity in Spain should return to the state that existed between March 15 and March 29, although lockdown and other health measures will remain in place.

The state of alert is likely to be extended this week for two further weeks to April 26, Sanchez said, although there are signs that the health situation is improving.

In the first two weeks of Spain's lockdown, large parts of the country's manufacturing industry, including auto makers, were closed, while a number of other industrial units considered "non-essential" were due to close for the last week of March and the first week of April, which is also the Easter holiday week.

As a result of the emergency measures, demand for gasoline fell 56% year on year in the first lockdown week and 83% in the second week, according to fuel distributor Compania Logistica de Hidrocarburos.

Power demand, meanwhile, fell a maximum of around 20% from pre-lockdown measures (721 GWh for the full day of Wednesday March 4) to last week's figure during enhanced measures of 576 GWh on Wednesday, April 1.

Under less stringent restrictions, daily Wednesday power demand was 651 GWh on Wednesday, March 18 and 628 GWh on Wednesday, March 25.

Gas demand has remained robust however, propped up by domestic demand during a colder weather period at the end of March, with gas-to-power demand weighing more heavily on overall consumption, amid a reduced thermal gap.