Manufacturing however grew just 1.2 percent, dragged down by wood and food production, while electrical equipment was the strongest contributor, up 12.2 percent.

The rise of 4.5 percent seen in August 2026 took place at constant prices compared with August last year. Output increased in all three industrial sectors: by 25.3 percent in mining, by 56.9 percent in energy production and by 1.2 percent in manufacturing.

Commenting on the results, Riin Kadarik, lead analyst at Statistics Estonia, said that,as in July, manufacturing output continued to grow in August, despite the decline in production volumes in the two largest manufacturing activities.

"Output fell by 0.6 percent in the manufacture of wood and by 3.8 percent in the manufacture of food products, which was mainly due to the decreased production of dairy products. The biggest contributor to the growth in manufacturing production was the manufacture of electrical equipment where output was up by 12.2 percent year on year, supported by increased production in the manufacture of electric motors, generators and transformers," Kadarik said.

In July this year, production volumes increased in two thirds of the manufacturing activities. In August, however, output grew in less than half of the manufacturing activities. There were five economic activities with a significant increase in output — in addition to the manufacture of electrical equipment, production volumes increased notably in the manufacture of machinery and equipment not elsewhere classified (n.e.c), which rose by 19.7 percent; coke and refined petroleum products (20.4 percent), fabricated metal products (6.9 percent) and motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers (up 19.1 percent).

Looking at the major industries, in addition to the manufacture of wood and food products, output also fell by 2.1 percent in the manufacture of computers, electronic and optical products.

In August 2026, 66.2 percent of the total production of manufacturing was sold to the external market, a little higher than in July. Compared with August 2025, the sales of manufacturing production increased by 6.4 percent at current prices according to working-day adjusted data. Domestic sales increased by 3.7 percent and export sales by 8 percent.

The output of the energy sector was up by 56.9 percent in August at constant prices. Based on the volume of production, electricity production increased by 43.3 percent and heat production by 46.5 percent year on year.

"Electricity production was boosted by the significant increase in wind and solar energy production. Also, electricity exports were much higher. The substantial year-on-year increase was also due to the fact that electricity production in August last year was lower than usual," Kadarik added.

The increase in mining output was driven by the greater extraction of oil shale and stone, sand and clay.

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