Ljubljana, 11 February (STA) - Slovenia's industrial output increased by 4.6% last year, driven by expansion in the manufacturing sector. However, the latest statistics show the growth rate slowed down by 3.4 percentage points compared to 2017.
The manufacturing sector saw a 5% growth in output, which compares to only a 1.2% increase in the electricity, gas and steam supply and a 1.6% drop in mining and quarrying, the Statistics Office reported.
Just like the output, industrial sales revenue also increased by 4.6% last year; a 0.9% growth was recorded in mining and a 4.2% decline in manufacturing.
Turnover rose across the sectors by the type of products, with the strongest growth rate posted by the capital goods industries at 9.6%.
In December alone industrial output dropped by 1.5% compared to the month before in the second straight monthly contraction. There was also a 3.1% slowdown compared to the same month a year ago.
Industrial sales revenue fell by 2.5% from November and by as much as 4.2% from December 2017. The fall was mainly due to lower turnover in the manufacturing sector.