Montenegro's industrial production increased 2.7% y/y in August, accelerating from a 0.2% y/y rise in July, supported by significant hike in the mining sector, statistics office data showed on September 25.
In 2017, the industrial sector is expected to attract foreign direct investment and boost economic growth along with tourism. Last year it contracted, mainly due to the worsening performance of the mining sector.
In August, output in the mining and quarrying sector jumped by 98.4% y/y, after increasing by 123.6% y/y in the previous month, thanks to a significant rise in mining of metal ores.
The manufacturing sector's output dropped 1.8% y/y, after declining by 14.6% y/y in July, with the contraction falling because of the better performance of the chemicals sector (up by 174.7% y/y).
On the other hand, production in the utilities sector turned to a 8.9% y/y fall from a 5.1% y/y rise a month earlier.
Across the main industrial groups, growth was recorded for consumer durables (up 42.6% y/y) and intermediate goods (up 39.6% y/y). All other groups posted a decline, including capital goods (down 23.7% y/y), consumer non-durables (down 13.5% y/y) and energy (down 6.6% y/y).
On a monthly basis, industrial output expanded 3.4% in August. In January-August, it contracted 6.7% y/y.
In 2016, industrial output was down by 4.4% y/y.