The index of industrial production covers the economic indicators of three industrial activities: Mining and quarrying, including of oil shale, energy production, and manufacturing.

At constant prices, in 2023 compared with 2022, output fell in all three industrial sectors, the agency says: By 21 percent in electricity production, by 9.8 percent in manufacturing, and by 4.7 percent in the case of mining.

Commenting on the results, Helle Bunder, leading analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that production volumes fell every month in 2023. "Last year was a difficult one for industrial enterprises. A comparison with previous periods shows that output levels were the lowest of the last 14 years," Bunder said.

Statistics Estonia says industry makes up the largest sector of the economy and is thus an important driver of economic growth.

In 2023, production volumes declined in most of the 23 manufacturing sub-sectors, Statistics Estonia says.

Of the more significant of these, output fell in building materials (which fell on year to 2023 by 21.9 percent), in the manufacture of wooden items (down by 16.8 percent), of fabricated metal products (fell by 9.2 percent), and of computers and electronic products (down 8.7 percent), as well as in food products (3.6 percent).

Output rises were however posted in the manufacture of shale oil (up by 18.8 percent), the repair and installation of machinery and equipment (which rose by 8.4 percent) and the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (4.2 percent).

Bang on two-thirds of the total production of manufacturing was sold on the external market in 2023, Statistics Estonia says.

On year to 2023, export sales fell by 8.3 percent and domestic sales by 7.3 percent at current prices, according to working-day adjusted data.

Figures for December 2023

In December 2023 alone, with regard to energy production, the volume of electricity production (when measured in Mwh) fell by 27.7 percent compared with December 2022.

The production of heat (district heating) on the other hand rose by 1.2 percent in December 2023 compared with the same month in 2022.

Total industrial production fell by 2.5 percent, and manufacturing production by 1.6 percent, in December 2023 compared with December 2022.

Between November and December 2023, seasonally adjusted total industrial production rose by 5.3 percent. while the production output of manufacturing rose by 5.9 percent, between the two months.

Statistics Estonia compiled the above survey on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.

More detailed information is available from Statistics Estonia's website here, here and here.

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