Slovakia’s industrial sales rebounded in April 2013 rising by 6% y/y, following a revised 5.1% drop in March, which was the biggest since October 2009, data from the statistics office showed. April’s reading showed the best performance since October 2012.

Sales of the manufacturing industry recovered to a 6.5% y/y growth in April from a 6.9% y/y decline in March. The auto manufacturing sector (which accounts for more than a quarter of total industrial sales) reported a 7.1% y/y rise in April sales, reversing a 5.3% y/y drop in the previous month. Sales of computers, electronics and optics (another important driver of the country’s export-oriented industrial sector) climbed 5.9% y/y, after a 9.7% y/y drop in March.

The April industrial sector turnover grew by 1.4% m/m on a seasonally adjusted basis following a 0.7% increase in March.

IntelliNews comment: The recovery of industrial sales in April is a bit surprising, but follows the trend observed in other major indicators for the economic conditions in Slovakia, like industrial output and exports, which also showed improvement. The rebound is surprising as external demand is widely expected to remain subdued this year, denting Slovakia’s export-driven economic growth to less than 1% in 2013 from 2% in 2012.

For the full-year 2012, Slovak industrial sales grew 6.2% y/y to EUR 82.25bn, buoyed by a 21.8% growth in the sales of the automotive industry and by an 8.1% rise in the sales of the electronics industry. Exports of cars and electronics are the main driving force of the Slovak export-fuelled economy.