Industry is the largest sector of the Estonian economy and an important driver of economic growth. The index of industrial production covers the economic indicators of three industrial activities: mining, energy production and manufacturing.

Helle Bunder, analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that in April last year manufacturing production volumes decreased by 15 percent because of the emergency situation due to coronavirus, but this year it increased sharply, by 18 percent, due to the low reference base.

"Production increased in almost all manufacturing activities. Among the activities with larger shares, production grew again in wood manufacturing (by 18.1 percent) as well as for the manufacture of metal products (by 18.6 percent), electronic products (by 10.1 percent), shale oil (by 37.1 percent), furniture (by 60.2 percent) and building materials (by 28.3 percent). There was moderate growth also in food manufacturing (0.9 percent)," added Bunder.

Of the total production of manufacturing, 68 percent was sold to the external market. The share of export sales was the largest in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and the manufacture of computers and electronic products. According to unadjusted data, the sales of production for export increased by 37% and sales to the domestic market by 17 percent year on year.

In April compared to March, both the seasonally adjusted total industrial production and production of manufacturing increased by 4 percent.

In energy production, the volume of electricity production (in megawatt-hours) increased by 43 percent and the production of heat by 4 percent compared to April 2020.

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