In January, Slovak industry continued to produce almost by a tenth less than a year ago

In January 2023, industrial production of the SR reached the lowest January's performance since 2017. In industrial production, manufacture of rubber industry and manufacture of computers and electronics decreased mainly.

Industrial production¹⁾ of the SR decreased by 8.6%, year-on-year, in January 2023; the industry has only slightly moderated its significant lag, which have an impact for the fourth consecutive month. Currently, in January 2023, the Slovak industry produced only by a 2.3% higher value than on average in 2015. It was the lowest January's performance since 2017. Comparison with the average of 2015 (the so-called base index) enables an objective assessment of the industry's performance over a longer period of time.

In total, of the 15 monitored sectors of the Slovak industry (divisions/special industrial groupings)²⁾, most of them produced less than in January a year ago.

Within industrial production, the most significant year-on-year decrease was recorded in manufacture of rubber and plastic products by 13.3% (contribution of -1.30 percentage points/p. p. to the result of the whole industry³⁾). This was followed by the impact of a decrease in manufacture of computer and electronic products by 33.2% (contribution -1 p. p.)

The two largest sectors of industry also produced less year-on-year, but their decline was not among the significant influences. In January, manufacture of transport equipment was by 0.5% lower year-on-year, and manufacture of metals was by 3.1% lower.

The overall production was positively influenced mainly by an increase in manufacture of electrical equipment by 4.4% (contribution +0.33 p.p.) and then by a rise of up to 5% in sectors with a small share in the structure of the Slovak industry, such as manufacture of textiles, clothing and leather, or manufacture of petroleum products, including coke.

In terms of the structure according to the main industrial groupings, production related to energy and also production of durable consumer goods decreased by a fifth (more than 20%) year-on-year, intermediate goods also decreased by a tenth (more than 10%). A slight decrease of up to 2% was also recorded in production of capital goods as well as in production of non-durable consumer goods.

Month-on-month (compared to December 2022), after taking seasonal effects into account, industrial production decreased by 1.5%.