Coronavirus pandemic prolongs Finnish industry crisis

The coronavirus crisis keeps industrial production in negative numbers for another month.

According to Statistics Finland, industrial output adjusted for working days was 6.1% lower in July than in the corresponding month of the last year. In aggregated terms, production went down by 3.3% in January-July from the year before.

The only good news is that in July there was a slight rise in production on a monthly basis: output grew by 0.9% from June.

A general downfall

The industrial output decreased in July in nearly all industries.

The fall was strongest in the industry of mining and quarrying, 11.9% from the previous month. Output in the electrical and electronics industry decreased by 1.7% and in the metal and forest industries by 0.7% compared to June.

Output grew slightly only in the food industry, by 1.6%.

Year-on-year

Compared to one year ago, output grew only in the chemical industry, by 1% from July 2019.

In other main industries output was falling. The fall was also strongest compared to one year back in mining and quarrying, where output declined by 22.4%.

Production went down by 11.2% in the electrical and electronics industry, by 8.4% in the forest industry and by 8.1% in the metal industry from the year before. Output in the food industry decreased by 1.2%.