Romania's industrial production index, seasonally adjusted, continued to converge to the pre-crisis levels in October when it advanced by 2.1% compared to September.

Compared to the dynamics of peers in the region such as Poland and Hungary, Romania’s industry has been slower to recover and this may be explained by the lower wight of the automobile industry that performed well in the region including in Romania.

The industrial advance in Romania, in October, was stronger than average (+2.6% m/m) in the core manufacturing industries.

Crude oil processing (+6.3% m/m) recovered after the prior deep plunge, beverage manufacturing soared by 12% m/m, and tobacco production also advanced by 5.9% m/m. The automobile industry also kept performing above average (+3.8% m/m) as well as the manufacturing of electrical products (+8.7% m/m).

However, despite significant recovery in October, the seasonally adjusted industrial output lags by 2.4% behind the pre-crisis peak level seen in February.

The lag versus the pre-crisis peak is smaller (1%) for the core manufacturing sectors.

On the upside, some industries have overcome the crisis in terms of (seasonally adjusted) production. Namely, automobile production was 6.3% stronger in October compared to February. The manufacturing of rubber and plastic products and electronic and optical components (also mostly used in automobile production) advanced by 4.2-4.3%.

In contrast, and quite surprisingly, food production in October was 10.7% smaller compared to February.

For the whole January-October period, the industrial output contracted by 11% y/y and 12% y/y for the core manufacturing industries. The deepest plunge was in automobile production (-20% y/y), which was strongly impacted by the production halt during the state of emergency in March-May.