Industrial production in Slovakia decreased by 6.9% year-on-year in March in the first drop this year after stagnating in February. In month-on-month terms, production decreased by 1.2%.

The industry’s influential sector of transportation equipment manufacturing decreased by 14.7% y/y.

“Y/y lower performance was reported by 11 out of 15 industrial sectors. The pace of decline was significantly dampened y/y by up to a quarter higher performance in the energy sector,” Slovak statisticians highlighted.

Supply of electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning increased by 30.6% y/y, as did the manufacture of electrical equipment and the manufacture of coke and petroleum products.

The mining and quarrying sector decreased by 41.7% y/y, while the manufacture of basic metals (-12.8%), other manufacturing and installation of machinery (-14.5%), and manufacture of textiles, apparel, leather (-13.1%) also registered double-digit drops. The manufacture of rubber and plastic products decreased by 5.9%.

Statisticians also noted that after methodological changes introduced in January accompanied by data recalculation, the March decrease represents the first drop since August 2023.

In the first quarter (January – March) of this year, industrial production declined by 1.3% y/y.

Construction output registered a fourth consecutive y/y decrease of 9.4% and amounted to €484.3mn in March. It dropped by 7.5% m/m.    

“This was mainly due to the domestic new construction, which was lower by a tenth,” statisticians highlighted, adding that “the construction of buildings slowed down and work on engineering constructions also dropped by double digits”.

New construction dropped by 10.2% y/y and repairs and maintenance by 4.9%. Construction of buildings declined by 8.1%, while civil engineering works, including highway construction, decreased by 15.5% – the most since January 2022.

From January to March, the construction output amounted to €1.3bn, which is a decrease by 6.6% y/y, and all three components registered negative values.