Industrial production decreased in March. According to Statistics Finland, the decrease in production was influenced by, among other things, political labor battles and maintenance shutdowns.
Seasonally adjusted industrial production decreased in March by 3.9 percent from the previous month, says Statistics Finland. The entire industrial production decreased by 7.7 percent from a year ago.
Industrial production decreased from the previous month in almost all main industries. The strongest decline was in the electricity, gas, heating and air conditioning maintenance industry and the forest industry.
Production grew only in mining and quarrying and in the food industry.
According to Statistics Finland, the decrease in production was influenced by, among other things, political labor battles and maintenance shutdowns. Labor struggles had the strongest impact on the forest industry. The decrease in production in the electricity, gas, heating and air-conditioning maintenance industry was also caused by maintenance shutdowns that occurred at the same time.
Statistics Finland also says that the value of new orders in industry was about 19 percent lower in March than a year earlier. During January-March, orders decreased by more than 11 percent from a year ago.
In March, companies received fewer new orders than a year ago in all main industries examined.
In the metal industry, the value of new orders was about 18 percent lower than a year earlier. In the manufacture of paper and paper and cardboard products, new orders decreased by approximately 21 percent and in the chemical industry by almost 22 percent year-on-year.
Fresh ones the data on the order accumulation of Finnish technology industry companies and the development of demand predicts still difficult economic prospects for the technology industry for the rest of the year. Teknologiateollisuus ry states in its press release that the demand situation continued to be weak during the beginning of the year and the order flows have been even thinner than before.
According to Teknologiateollisuus ry’s recent order base and personnel survey, the value of new orders received in the technology industry in January-March was 15 percent lower than in the previous quarter and 22 percent lower than in the same period last year.
Only judged on the basis of order development, the end of the year looks as grim as at the end of last year, but on the other hand, companies’ expectations for the future have turned slightly better than before.
“Companies’ subtly improved expectations for the future are certainly largely linked to expectations of a drop in interest rates. However, a significant reduction in interest rates in the near future is unlikely and it is uncertain how strongly and how quickly the slightly reduced interest rates will start to be transmitted to the real economy, stimulating demand, says the director”, the chief economist Petteri Rautaporras in the bulletin.
The ECB, the European Central Bank, is believed to lower its key interest rates in June.