Bulgaria's industrial production increased 4.9% y/y in August, improving from a revised 4.6% y/y rise in July, supported by improving performance in the mining sector, working-day adjusted statistics office data showed on October 9. On a seasonally-adjusted monthly comparison basis, output moved up 0.4% in August, after rising by a revised 0.5% m/m in July.

According to GDP data, industry grew by a real 2.8% in 2016. The sector accounted for 23.8% of the gross value added generated by the Bulgarian economy last year. The latest available unadjusted GDP data showed that industry went up 3.1% y/y in the second quarter of 2017.

Manufacturing production grew at the same pace of 6.4% y/y in August as it did in July. Within manufacturing, the highest y/y increases were reported in the manufacturing of computer and communication equipment, electronics and optical products (+29%) and manufacturing of machinery and equipment (+26.8%). The deepest y/y declines were in the manufacturing of transportation equipment (-15.6%) and drinks (-13%).

Mining production increased 12.9% y/y in August, after expanding by a revised 3.9% y/y in July. Output went up y/y in the mining of coal and lignite (+14.5%) and in metal ores (+17.8%), but dropped in other mining and quarrying (-18%). In the mining production index there are two more groups – extraction of crude petroleum and natural gas, as well as mining support service activities – but the statistics office did not disclose their performance for confidentiality reasons.

The y/y decrease in utilities output expanded to 3.8% in August from 1.4% in July.