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Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Decline In Latvian Industry Accelerates Again in July

Latvian industrial output contracted again in July 2008, indicating that GDP contraction will almost certainly continue into at least Q3 2008.

Industrial production at constant prices decreased in July 2008 by 0.7%, according to seasonal and working day adjusted data released today by the Latvia statistics office. Manufacturing was down by 1%, electricity, gas and water supply by 0.5%, while in mining and quarrying there was a monthly increase of 7.7%. The drop in industrial output was largely due to adecrease in the manufacturing of other transport equipment (repairing and construction of ships and boats) which was down by 34.7%, the manufacturing of chemicals, chemical products and man-made fibres, which was down by 8.7%, and in the manufacture of wood, wood products and cork, down by 3.7%.




Compared to July 2007 industrial output dropped by 6.9%, according to working day adjusted data. Manufacturing was down by 9.1%, electricity, gas and water supply by 1.6%, and mining and quarrying increased by 20.9%. The decrease was mainly influenced by the volume reduction in the manufacturing of furniture – down by 44.7% - the manufacture of wood, wood products and cork – down by 15.5% - and the manufacture of food products and beverages – down by 9.5%.



As we can see in the chart above, output peaked in August 2007 and has been declining steadily since.

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