Industrial output slides slightly in February

Output of total industries adjusted for working days was 0.1 per cent lower in February 2017 than in February 2016, according to Statistics Finland. This year’s February had one fewer working day than last year. Original output fell by 0.2 per cent in February from one year back.

In February, output increased most, or by 7.0 per cent, in the chemical industry. Output in mining and quarrying went up by 5.8 per cent from one year ago and in the electrical and electronics industry by 1.0 per cent. Output in the metal industry went down by 0.3 per cent year-on-year and in the food industry by 0.9 per cent. In the forest industry, output declined by 4.3 per cent from the previous year.

In February, capacity utilisation rate in manufacturing (C) was 82.8 per cent, which was 0.7 per cent higher than one year earlier. In the forest industry, capacity utilisation rate was 90.2 per cent in February, or 0.4 percentage points lower than in February 2016. In the metal industry, capacity utilisation rate was 84.2 per cent in February, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than one year earlier.