Swedish industrial production falls in May marking downturn in manufacturing sector

Sweden’s industrial production dropped in May, implying a sluggish development in the nation’s manufacturing sector. According to Statistics Sweden, industrial production fell 0.8 percent month-on-month in May, as compared with April’s decline of 0.2 percent. On a year-on-year basis, industrial production grew 1.7 percent, as compared with April’s rise of 3.2 percent.

The aggregate for the other manufacturing industry was the sub-sector, which indicated the highest increase, whereas the motor vehicle industry indicated the largest decrease.

In the March to May 2016 period, industrial production rose 1.4 percent, as compared with the earlier three-month period.  The May figures are preliminary. April’s month-on-month figure has been revised downwards by 0.3 percentage points to a drop of 0.2 percent.

Order intakes for the month remained flat on a sequential basis. It had dropped 0.6 percent in April. Meanwhile, on a year-on-year basis, order intake dropped 0.5 percent, as compared with April’s growth of 0.1 percent.

May’s order intakes to manufacturing sector were subdued. It implies a down turn in production, noted Nordea Bank in a research report. But the showdown in Swedish economic activity would be because of a weaker development in domestic demand rather than deceleration in the exporting sector.

Meanwhile, services production dropped 0.1 percent month-on-month in May, on seasonally adjusted basis, stated Statistics Sweden. On a year-on-year basis, the index of service production rose 5.4 percent in volume and working day adjusted figures. In the March to May 2016 period, production rose 1.2 percent in seasonally adjusted terms.