INDUSTRY in Slovakia in December 2013 again saw double-digit growth. The data of the Statistics Office show that industrial production in the last month of 2013, excluding the impact of working days, grew 12.2 percent year-on-year, slowing from 12.6 percent in November. This was only the second double-digit growth rate of the Slovak industry over the past year and one of the highest monthly growth rates in recent years, the SITA newswire reported.
On average, industry grew 5.2 percent over the past year. In monthly terms, after seasonal adjustments, industrial production in December 2013 compared to November 2013 fell by 1.2 percent.
Industry in December was mainly driven by industrial manufacturing, where annual growth compared to November accelerated from 14.6 percent to 16.5 percent. Growth in mining and quarrying was 7.4 percent. Overall numbers were adversely influenced by production in electricity, gas, steam and cooled air, which decreased by 6.8 percent compared to December 2012.
Growth in industrial production was most influenced by a rising output of transport equipment by 25.9 percent, manufacturing of basic metals and metal products except machinery and equipment by 18.8 percent, manufacturing of electrical equipment by 49.6 percent, other manufacturing, repair and installation of machinery and equipment by 27.9 percent and in manufacturing of rubber, plastics and other non-metallic mineral products by 14.2 percent.
