The industrial production slowed down significantly, it dropped in most sectors, including the dominant manufacture of motor vehicles, metals and rubber

Industry, the dominant sector of the Slovak economy, reached negative values after seven months. Year-on-year lower performance was reported by 11 out of 15 industrial sectors. The pace of decline was significantly dampened year-on-year by up to a quarter higher performance in the energy sector.

In March 2024, the industrial production of the SR decreased by 6.9% year-on-year. Thus, after January's growth and February's stagnation, the industry slowed down its performance, this is the first decline since August last year (after recalculation due to the adjustment of the methodology). From the January 2024 data, the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic implemented a methodological change - a transition to a new base period (from 2015 to 2021, more in the document in the note and at the end of the text)¹⁾. In order to be able to monitor the data for a long time, the data were recalculated to a new base in the entire time series.

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In total, 11 of the 15 monitored sectors (special industrial groupings)²⁾ recorded a year-on-year lower performance, among them several dominant sectors of the Slovak industry.

The most significant impact on the slowdown in industrial performance was a decrease by 14.7% in manufacture of transport equipment. The contribution³⁾ is an indicator that takes into account the rate of growth/decline in combination with the weight of the sector in the structure of the industry and hierarchizes the influences of individual sectors on the entire sector, this was an effect of minus 3,92 percentage points (p.p.) to the sector´s result.

The declines at the level of 10% - 15% in other structures of industry, in manufacture of metals (contribution - 2.38 p.p.), also in manufacture of machinery and equipment (contribution -2.38 p.p.) as well as in other manufacture and installation of machinery (contribution -0.87 p. p.) had also a considerable impact. A significant slump in mining and quarrying, which is a consequence of the closure of the mining company Hornonitrianske bane, will also contribute to the decline of the entire industry throughout the year. Currently, in March, mining and quarrying had a year-on-year lower output of 41.7% (contribution -0.64 p.p.).

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A more significant slump in the entire industry was prevented by the ongoing year-on-year significantly higher performance in the energy sector, i.e. in the supply of electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning. In March, the industry reported a growth by 30.6% (contribution +2.48 p.p.). It was the second most significant influence on the monthly result of the industry as a whole and it significantly dampened the drops in other sectors of the economy. The manufacture of electrical equipment, as well as the manufacture of coke and petroleum products, also showed a higher production compared with last year.

On a month-on-month basis (compared to February 2024), after seasonal adjustment, industrial production decreased by 1.2%.

In terms of breakdown according to the main industrial groupings, only production related to energy increased year-on-year by 20.8%. All other components recorded declines, i.e the production of investment funds by 13.4%, the production of durable goods by 8%, production of intermediate consumption by 7.9% and the production of non-durable consumer goods by 3.9%.

Due to the slowdown in March, the industry declined within the quarterly cumulative, in total, the industrial production dropped by 1.3% year-on-year. A decrease compared to the corresponding period last year was recorded by 11 out of a total of 15 monitored sectors (special industrial groupings)³⁾. After ranking the influence of the industry´s quarterly result, the growth sectors were in the first and fourth place, namely the high growth in the supply of electricity and gas by 26.1% (contribution +2.51 p.p.) and 13% growth in manufacture of electrical equipment. Of the industries that slowed down, they had the most significant effects - a decrease in manufacture of transport equipment by 8.1% (contribution -2.05 p.p.) and further over 40% decrease in mining and quarrying (contribution -0.61 p.p.) caused by the decline of mining in the SR.