The recession that the Finnish economy is suffering has once again hit the industrial and service sectors, whose total turnover fell by 5.2% and 10.8%, respectively, in August. Within industry, the drop was especially marked in the forestry and chemical sectors. In services, the collapse was stronger in transport and storage.
The exceptional situation caused by coronavirus had an effect on this development.
According to Statistics Finland, of the main industries, turnover declined most in the forest industry, by 20.4% from one year earlier. Turnover also declined strongly in the chemical industry, by 16.5% from one year earlier. In addition to these, turnover also decreased in mining and quarrying, in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, and in the textile, clothing and leather industry.
Even so, there were some sectors that were able to avoid the decline. Turnover grew most in the electrical and electronics industry, by 13.8% from one year before. In the metal industry, turnover grew by 2.2% and in the food industry by 0.3%.
10.8% fall in services
Working day adjusted turnover in service industries also fell by 10.8% in August 2020 from August 2019. Service output or volume, from which the impact of prices has been eliminated, fell by 8.2% over the same period. In this year's July, turnover went down by 10.9%, while volume contracted correspondingly by 8.5%. Services are here examined exclusive of trade.
The weakest development among was seen in the transportation and storage service sector, where working day adjusted turnover fell by 24% from August 2019, while the volume turned to a decline of 21% in the same period. In arts, entertainment and recreation, working day adjusted turnover fell by 23% from the year before. Turnover in accommodation and food service activities contracted by 22.9%. At the time, the volume of the industry also fell by 22.3 per cent.
Turnover development was also very low in administrative and support services activities, where working day adjusted turnover decreased by 11.3% year-on-year. The 9.3% drop in the volume of the industry was also weaker than the average development in the volume of service industries.
Professional, scientific and technical activities (-5.3%) and other service activities (-4.6%) also fell. The volume of professional, scientific and technical activities was 5.4% lower than in August last year.
The positive is that working day adjusted turnover of both information and communication activities and real estate activities increased by 2.2% from one year back. Over the same period, volume grew by 5.2% in information and communication activities and by 0.8% in real estate activities.
Month-on-month growth
Seasonally adjusted turnover and volume in service industries both grew by 0.5% in August 2020 compared with July.
In July, turnover grew by 2.3% from June 2020. At the same time, volume or output, from which the impact of price changes has been eliminated, showed a growth of 1.5%.
The data for the latest month are preliminary and they may become significantly revised particularly on more detailed industry levels in coming months. The volume of service industries is calculated by eliminating the effect of price changes from the turnover index.
