In March, the production of Slovak industry reached positive numbers, its result was affected by manufacture of motor vehicles and manufacture of metals

In the third month of 2023, the Slovak industry increased year-on-year, but the performance did not catch up with the March´s production in 2021 or in 2019. Significant fluctuations in the results of the individual sectors of the industry persist, with a total of 4 sectors of industrial production recording up to a double-digit year-on-year decrease.

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Industrial production¹⁾ of the SR increased by 2.5% year-on-year in March 2023, while there was a growth after five months of year-on-year stagnation in the performance of a key sector of the Slovak economy.

Currently, the Slovak industry in March 2023 produced by 20% higher value than the average in 2015. In a long-term comparison, however, it was a quarter lower growth than in March 2021, and also a lower production than in March 2019, the last year before the onset of the pandemic (in 2020, March was affected by elimination of the production after the onset of the pandemic). Comparison with the average of 2015 (the so-called basic index) enables an objective assessment of the industry's performance over a longer period of time.

The most significant impact on the industry was the year-on-year dynamic growth of the decisive manufacture of transport equipment by 15.6%, which in March largely dampened the aggregate impact of declines in most of the 15 monitored sectors (special industrial groups)²⁾. The influence of sectors is expressed through the so-called contributions³⁾, which take into account the rate of an increase/decrease combined with the weight of the sector in industrial structure and enable the hierarchization of the effects of individual sectors, the manufacture of transport equipment contributed by a growth by 4.02 percentage points (p. p.) to the result of the sector.

The positive result of the entire industry was also influenced by the growth of the proportionally more significant manufacture of metals and fabricated metal products by 4.9% (contribution +0.58 p.p.).

However, significant fluctuations in the year-on-year growth or decline of individual sectors persist. A total of four sectors had up to a double-digit year-on-year decrease, of which the most significant impact was a quarter decrease (by 24.8%) in manufacture of computers and electronics  (contribution - 0.58 p.p.), as well as double-digit decreases in manufacture of food and beverages as well as in manufacture of wood and paper products and printing.

In terms of breakdown according to the main industrial groupings, production of investment funds increased by almost 10% year-on-year, and production related to energy by 7.6%. The other three components were in year-on-year decline, namely the production of durable goods by almost 15%. The production of non-durable consumer goods and intermediate goods decreased slightly.

Month-on-month (compared to January 2023), after seasonal adjustment, industrial production increased by 1.6%.

In total,  for the three months of 2023, industrial production decreased by 3.5% year-on-year, while the most significant impact was the growth in manufacture of transport equipment by 7.2% (contribution +1.84 p.p.), supported by more moderate growth in a total of five other components of industrial production which at least partly compensated for the declines in the rest of the sectors of industrial production or the entire sector with the most influential decline in manufacture of rubber and plastic products by 9.0% (contribution by -0.90 p.p.).