Slovak industry in 2023 decreased only slightly, manufacture of motor vehicles prevented it from a deeper collapse

Two-thirds of the monitored sectors recorded a decline in manufacture over the entire past year. Despite this, industrial production showed a year-on-year decrease of only 0.6%. It was the lowest drop in 15 years, during which the industry recorded a year-on-year lower performance a total of four times.

In December 2023, the industrial production¹⁾ of the SR developed similarly in a year-on-year comparison, the decrease represented only 0.1%. It was the eighth time during the year 2023 that the industry had a lower performance than in the identical month of 2022. The development in the structures of the industry continued to fluctuate, year-on-year lower performance was recorded in a total of 8 of the 15 monitored sectors (special industrial groupings)²⁾. The most significant impact on industrial production in the last month of the year was the almost 20% growth in manufacture of electrical equipment (contribution +1.37 p.p.) and thus significantly contributed to maintaining the performance of industry at the same level as in December 2022. Contribution³⁾ is an indicator that takes into account the rate of increase/decrease combined with the weight of the sector in industrial structure and enable the hierarchization of the effects of individual sectors.

Among the sectors that slowed down their performance, the most significant impact was the decrease in manufacture of rubber and plastic products by almost 11% (contribution -0.89 p.p.) and also almost 13% decrease in other manufacture and installation of machinery (contribution -0.69 p.p.).

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On a month-on-month basis (compared to November 2023), after seasonal adjustment, industrial production increased by 3.1%.

Development of industrial production in summary for the year 2023

Slovakia's overall industrial production for 2023 dropped by 0.6%. In the period since the financial crisis (in 2009), when the industry experienced a double-digit decline, year-on-year declines occurred a total of three times. However, the actual decrease last year was lower than in 2022 and 2020.

A total of 10 of the 15 monitored sectors had lower performance year-on-year. The declines of individual industry structures ranged from 1% to 22.4%. The industry as a whole for the whole year 2023 decreased most significantly due to the 8.9% decrease in manufacture of rubber and plastic products (contribution -0.92 p.p.) and the aforementioned more than 22% drop in manufacture of computer products (contribution -0.50 p.p.). An almost 10% decrease in manufacture of wood and paper products (contribution -0.33 p.p.) and a 7.8% decrease in other manufacture and installation of machinery (contribution -0.31 p.p.) also affected  the overall result.

Despite the fact that the entire industry decreased year-on-year, the most significant impact was the growth of two sectors, which very significantly dampened and almost covered the decline of several even more important sectors of the industry. It was the key manufacture of transport equipment, which showed a 4.9% increase (contribution +1.36 p.p.). It was its highest growth since 2018. The industry was also helped by the 7.4% higher manufacture of electrical equipment (+0.57 p.p. contribution).

The Statistical Office of the SR would like to inform the users that together with the publication of data for June 2023, it has revised the values of industrial production for the previous months (since 2008) based on the supply of new data and the correction of error by reporting units.