Industrial output back on the growth track in March

According to the index per working day of Statistics Finland, industrial output grew by 1.7 per cent in the year to March. In February output fell by 0.6 per cent on the year before. Industrial output took a slight upward turn thanks to the picking up of the metal industry.

Output in the metal industry increased by 8 per cent in March, while in February the growth was just under 4 per cent. Growth was still most rapid in the manufacture of electrical products, by a good 14 per cent from March 1995. The manufacture of metal products grew by close on 11 per cent.

Growth in the metal industry raised the output of investment goods, which increased by as much as 10 per cent in March. The output of consumer goods was also a good 2 per cent greater than in March of the year before.

In the wood and paper industry, instead, output fell by a full 9 per cent in March. The manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products decreased by nearly 13 per cent compared to March of 1995, as did the output of the mechanical wood industry, by just under one per cent.

Despite the slight acceleration in the growth rate utilisation rates remained considerably lower than the year before. Of the capacity in manufacturing just under 83 per cent was utilised in March, almost 7 percentage points less than in March 1995. In the metal industry, the utilisation rate was just under 88 per cent, which is 6 percentage points less than the year before. In the wood and paper industry the utilisation rate remained at just under 86 per cent, nearly 13 percentage points down on the previous year. In other manufacturing, mainly in that of the domestic markets the capacity utilisation rate stayed at close on 76 per cent.

Industrial output for the January-March period grew by just under one per cent on the year before. Growth in output was sustained by the metal industry with a good 6 per cent rate. Output in the wood and paper industry, instead, fell by 10 per cent and that of other manufacturing by a good one per cent.

Source: Volume Index of Industrial Output, March 1996
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