15 June, 1999

Inquiries: Mr Rami Peltola +358 9 1734 3615, Mr Kari Rautio +358 9 1734 2479
Director in charge: Mr Ilkka Hyppönen

Industrial output up by 7.6 per cent in April

According to Statistics Finland, industrial output as calculated by working day grew by 7.6 per cent in the year to April. Growth continued to hinge on the electronics industry, where output increased by 61 per cent. Output in the other main industries fell from April 1998.

In the wood and paper industry, output contracted by 2.4 per cent from a year earlier. In the chemical industry, output went down by 2.9 per cent and in other manufacturing by 1.4 per cent. In the rest of the metal industry, output declined by close on 5 per cent.

April capacity utilisation rate in manufacturing was 86 per cent, which is good 4 percentage points lower than twelve months earlier. In the pulp and paper industry, capacity utilisation rate was 90 per cent, in the metal industry 89 per cent and in the chemical industry 76 per cent.

In the January-April period, output was up by 6 per cent compared to last year's corresponding period. In the metal industry, output increased by good 17 per cent thanks to the electronics industry where output went up by over 51 per cent. Against this, output in the wood and paper industry declined by 1.7 per cent. In the chemical industry, output fell by 3.4 per cent and in other manufacturing by 2 per cent compared to the January to April period last year.

By international comparison, the good 7 per cent growth rate in Finnish industrial output was quite fast. In the United States, industrial output grew by 2 per cent in the year to April. In Russia, industrial output went up by 1.5 per cent and in Germany by 0.2 per cent. Industrial output in Japan contracted by nearly 2 per cent. In Britain, too, output declined by close on 2 per cent compared to April last year.

Source: Volume Index of Industrial Output 1999, April. Statistics Finland