Growth in industrial output slackened in January

According to the index per working day of Statistics Finland, growth in industrial output slowed down to one per cent in the year to January, as against 5 per cent still in December.

The slowdown in the growth rate has continued since last fall and is mainly attributable to the lack of demand in important export countries, but also by the slackened pull of the domestic markets.

Output in the metal industry increased by 7 per cent in the year to January, while in December the growth rate still was 22 per cent. In January the growth in output was sustained by the manufacture of electrical products, which grew by 17 per cent on the year before. In the other main sectors of the metal industry growth has nearly stagnated.

In the wood and paper industry output fell by 9 per cent in the year to January, while in December the output decreased by as much as 17 per cent. The manufacture of pulp, paper and paper products fell by 10 per cent in the year to January, as against the fall of about one fifth in December. In the mechanical wood industry output decreased by 7 per cent on the year before.

The capacity utilisation rate of manufacturing was 83 per cent in January, which is 3 percentage points less than the year before. In the metal industry, the utilisation rate fell to 90 per cent in January and in the paper industry to 87 per cent.

Source: Volume Index of Industrial Output 1996, January
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