Industrial output in Slovakia registered a thin decrease of 0.1% year on year in May. It also decreased by 1.4% month on month.

The stagnating performance follows fluctuations in the industry in the previous two months – a 6.3% y/y growth in April and a 6.9% y/y slump in March.

“Even the growth in the manufacture of motor vehicles and production related to energy could not significantly exceed the decline in the manufacture of metals and also machinery and equipment,” Slovak statisticians highlighted, adding that 8 of the 15 monitored industrial sectors were in decline.

The manufacture of basic metals fell by 15.1% y/y, which was the fourth month in a row of y/y decline in what is one of the country’s most important sectors. The key sector of the manufacture of transport equipment grew by 7.9%.

Manufacture of machinery and equipment, another important sector, fell by 17.8% y/y, while mining and quarrying dropped by 31.6% and manufacture of coke and petroleum products decreased by 18.6%.

The positive y/y influence came from the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (+28.7%), followed by the manufacture of food products (+13.8%), manufacture of electrical equipment (+7.2%), and manufacture of wood products (+14.1%).

Industrial production increased by 0.3% y/y from January to May.     

The country’s statisticians also reported that construction production fell by 6.2% y/y in May, which is the deepest slump this year and a return to decline after a strong uptick of 9% registered in April. In m/m terms, construction output dropped by 2.8%.

“At a double-digit pace, dominant new construction lagged behind again. In terms of the production focus, work on engineering constructions slowed down by a fifth, which was the most since the beginning of 2022,” the report summed up, adding that “only the production of Slovak builders abroad maintained a growth by more than a quarter.”

New construction fell by 12.3% y/y and the overall value of the May production amounted to €622mn.  

From January to May, the construction output amounted to almost €2.6bn, which is a drop of 4.9% y/y.