Industrial output up 1.9% in February

Industrial production in Croatia went up 1.9% year-on-year in February 2015 after a steep decline in the previous month.

The national statistical office said today that according to seasonally adjusted data, industrial output in February rose 3.4% from January, while according to working day adjusted data, it was up 1.9% from February 2014.

Industrial production thus increased again, after it dropped in January this year by 5% year-on-year, which was its biggest decline in more than a year and a half. Previously industrial output had increased four months in a row.

"The annual production growth was supported by a 2.5% growth of production in the mining industry, and a 2.7% increase in production in the manufacturing industry, while electricity, gas and air conditioning supply dropped 0.9%," Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts said in a comment on the latest statistics.

Broken down by main industrial groupings, the data shows that the production of intermediary goods increased the most year-on-year, by 6.9%, the production of nondurable consumer goods went up 4.9% and of durable consumer goods 2.5%.

On the other hand, the production of energy saw an annual decline of 3.9% while the production of capital goods decreased 1.3%.

After going up 1.3% in 2014 for the first time after five years of continual decline, industrial output in the first two months of 2015 declined 1.5% compared to the same period of last year.

RBA analysts said they expected positive annual growth rates to continue in the coming period, with weak domestic demand continuing to restrict a more noticeable growth. They also warned that despite an increase in foreign demand, the need to continue strengthening the competitiveness of the national industries and exports should be kept in mind.

(Hina) rml

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