In July the industrial production was smaller than a year ago

According to Statistics Estonia, in July 2008 the industrial production decreased 5% compared to July of the previous year.

The decrease in the industrial production was essentially affected by a continuous decrease in electricity production — compared to July of the previous year, the production of electricity decreased 29%. As before, the decrease in electricity production was caused by a partial replacement of own production with the imports of electricity — in July nearly one third of the consumed electricity was imported. The production of heat decreased 2% compared to July of the previous year.

In manufacturing, the production decreased 0.3%. The main reason for this was the decrease in orders, first of all on the internal market. According to the information of the Estonian Institute of Economic Research, more than half of enterprises mentioned insufficient demand as the key factor hindering the growth. The decrease in the production of manufacturing was mainly influenced by the production of food, wood and building materials. The decrease in the manufacturing of food is continually affected by price increase and by the decrease in consumption resulting from it. Due to the decrease in construction volumes, the production of building materials is continually in a declining trend — the production of building materials decreased 27% compared to July of the previous year. The downward trend continued in the manufacturing of wood, the production of plastic products also decreased.

In July, production increased primarily in the export-oriented branches of industry — in the manufacture of metal products, chemical products, electrical machinery. Production grew in all branches of machinery and apparatus manufacturing, where the share of exports was 64% in the manufacture of machinery and 97% in the manufacture of radio apparatus.

In July compared to June, the seasonally adjusted industrial production of Estonia increased 0.3%.

The volume index and trend of production in manufacturing, January 1998 – July 2008
(2000 = 100)

Change in volume index of industrial production, July 2008
(percentage)

Economic activity	Change compared to previous month according to seasonally adjusted data^a	Change compared to corresponding month of previous year
Economic activity		according to unadjusted data	according to working-day adjusted data^b
TOTAL	0.3	-2.7	-5.2
Energy production	2.2	-25.2	-25.2
Mining	-19.7	-29.1	-31.0
Manufacturing	2.0	2.4	-0.3
manufacture of food products and beverages	-2.9	-9.7	-11.3
manufacture of wood and wood products	-3.7	-20.7	-22.8
manufacture of fabricated metal products	-5.1	20.3	16.0
manufacture of electrical machinery	20.5	31.8	27.0
manufacture of building materials	-1.9	-25.6	-27.2
manufacture of chemicals and chemical products	14.3	29.2	26.2
manufacture of furniture; manufacturing not elsewhere classified	9.6	3.0	-0.7
manufacture of radio, television and communication equipment and apparatus	-3.9	10.9	8.5
manufacture of textiles	2.7	5.6	1.0

^a In case of the seasonally adjusted volume index, the impact of the differing numbers of working days in a month and seasonally recurring factors has been eliminated. It is calculated only in comparison with the previous period.
^b In case of the working-day adjusted volume index, the impact of the differing number of working days in a month has been eliminated. It is calculated only in comparison with the corresponding period of the previous year.

For further information:

Lilian Bõkova
Leading Statistician
Industry, Construction and Energy Statistics Service
Statistics Estonia
Tel +372 625 9228

More detailed data have been published in the Statistical Database.