Romania’s industrial production index decreased by 2.1% y/y in May – when the activity in power generation and utilities area plunged by 16.2% y/y, the statistics office reported. A month earlier the output surged by 19.9% y/y [revised data]. The activity in the core manufacturing sector edged down slightly by 0.9% y/y in May after soaring 23.1% y/y in April.
The high volatility of industrial production was caused by the different timing and number of non-working days for the Easter holidays – not fully captured by the workday-adjustments of the statistics office. The activity shifted from May [Easter/Labour Day holidays] to April was visibly more than implied by the different workdays. Workday-adjusted industrial production still decreased by 1.2% y/y in May after a massive 11.5% y/y surge in April.
Notably, the industrial activity accelerated in the combined period of Apr-May compared to full Q1. Depending on June results, the second quarter’s industrial performance will most likely improve from Q1 – notably in the manufacturing sector. In the energy and utilities sector the activity, however, keeps losing ground.
The industrial output increased by 8.2% y/y in Apr-May, accelerating from the 4.7% y/y growth rate in Q1. In the core manufacturing sector, the annual growth rate moved in the two-digit area [10.2% y/y] in Apr-May from the 6.1% y/y level in Q1. On the opposite, the activity loses ground more markedly in the energy and utilities area – where the industrial activity contracted by 9.8% y/y in Apr-May from a slower 5.3% annual contraction in Q1.
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | Q113 | Apr-13 | May-13 | Apr-May | |
Total, y/y | 5.5% | 7.5% | 2.4% | 4.7% | 19.9% | -2.1% | 8.2% |
Total, swda* q/q, m/m | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | 2.6% | 4.7% | -10.7% | n.a. |
o/w manufacturing | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | 2.8% | 11.6% | -14.2% | n.a. |
Mining and Quarrying | -6.9% | 3.4% | 9.9% | 5.6% | 12.3% | 5.0% | 8.6% |
Manufacturing | 6.0% | 8.0% | 2.2% | 6.1% | 23.1% | -0.9% | 10.2% |
Utilities | 8.2% | 4.6% | 1.6% | -5.3% | -3.4% | -16.2% | -9.8% |
Source: INS *seasonally and workday-adjusted |
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